Asbestos and cancer: an early warning to the British TUC

Our plain-English summary of Asbestos and cancer: an early warning to the British TUC, by N.J. Wikeley (American Journal of Industrial Medicine, 1992).

The study

• Author: N.J. Wikeley
• Journal: American Journal of Industrial Medicine
• Published: 1992;22(3):449-54
• Type of article: Historical article
• Cited by: 8 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

Summary of the article

The author, a lawyer at the University of Birmingham, examined Trades Union Congress (TUC) archives held at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick. The archives related to the drafting of Britain's Asbestos Industry Regulations 1931 and the accompanying workmen's compensation scheme. They showed that in 1931 the TUC and its medical adviser, Sir Thomas Legge, received unsolicited help from Reginald Tage, a self-described "Asbestos Research Worker" who had studied conditions at the Cape Asbestos factory in Barking. Several of Tage's proposed amendments entered the final regulations. He criticized the compensation scheme for excluding workers not actively engaged in manufacturing and those who had left the relevant processes more than 3 years before the disease occurred. After bringing Legge X-ray plates of a packer with asbestosis who died of stomach cancer, he began investigating two other cancer cases, which lack of funds stopped him from pursuing. In January 1932 he identified two issues needing investigation: whether amphibole asbestos posed a greater risk than serpentine, and cancer as a complication of asbestosis. Doubts about his standing led the TUC to pay him a grant in March 1932 and end the relationship. Legge wrote that Tage was "inclined to develop wrong ideas about the possible effects of asbestos." The article also described 1930s inquest reports and a 1939 parliamentary disclosure of 39 asbestosis deaths among Cape Barking workers. The author concluded that Legge rather than Tage was misguided and that the 1931 Regulations proved inadequate.

PubMed has no abstract for this study, and the article doesn't print one. We wrote this summary from the full article with the help of AI. It is not the authors' wording.

In plain English

This article was a historical commentary by a lawyer, not a medical study. Using Trades Union Congress (TUC) archives, the author reported preliminary findings on the drafting of Britain's Asbestos Industry Regulations 1931. The archives showed the TUC was warned as early as 1931 of a possible link between asbestos exposure and cancer. The warning came from Reginald Tage, a self-described asbestos research worker who had studied the Cape Asbestos factory in Barking. In 1931 he showed the TUC's medical adviser, Sir Thomas Legge, X-ray plates of a packer with both asbestosis and stomach cancer. He then began investigating two other cancer cases but stopped for lack of funds. In January 1932 he named two issues needing investigation: cancer as a complication of asbestosis, and whether amphibole asbestos was riskier than serpentine asbestos. Some of his drafting suggestions entered the final regulations. However, the TUC took no further action on cancer. A TUC official said medical opinion was against them, and Legge wrote that Tage was 'inclined to develop wrong ideas.' The author concluded that events proved Legge, not Tage, misguided.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: Historical commentary based on archival research (TUC correspondence and memoranda); preliminary findings of a wider study
• Who was studied: TUC archives (Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick) on the TUC's response, in 1931 and 1932, to the draft Asbestos Industry Regulations in Great Britain, and its dealings with Reginald Tage, who had studied the Cape Asbestos factory in Barking
• Exposure: Work in the asbestos industry, especially the Cape Asbestos factory in Barking. Tage also raised removal of old boiler insulation and whether amphibole asbestos carried a greater risk than serpentine asbestos.
• Main results:
  • In September 1931 Tage brought Legge X-ray plates of a packer with both asbestosis and cancer of the stomach. The patient died of the cancer, so no compensation was payable.
  • Tage began investigating two other cancer cases, an unnamed young woman and an insulation stripper, but could not pursue them for lack of funds.
  • In January 1932 Tage identified two issues for further investigation: whether amphibole asbestos was a greater risk than serpentine asbestos, and cancer as a complication of asbestosis.
  • Some of Tage's suggested wording entered the final regulations, including that asbestos sacks be kept in good repair.
  • Tage reported that the compensation scheme excluded workers not in the manufacturing process. He cited ten workers certified with asbestosis but ineligible under the scheme.
  • The TUC's Smyth told Tage the points had been raised with the Home Office repeatedly, but medical opinion was against them.
  • Legge's last recorded comment on Tage, in March 1932, dismissed his ideas.
  • Tage noted 11 autopsies on workers at Cape's Barking factory between 1929 and 1931.
  • In 1939 the Factory Department said it knew of 39 asbestosis deaths among people who had worked at Cape's Barking factory.
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that events proved Legge, not Tage, misguided. In the author's view, acting on Tage's recommendations and concerns might have reduced the deaths that followed.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The author, a lawyer, said they did not feel qualified to enter the scientific debate on the history of asbestos and lung cancer.
  • The author described the findings as preliminary, part of a wider study still in preparation.
  • The author said it was only a hypothesis that Tage gained factory access through his brother.

Topics

The National Library of Medicine indexes this study under subjects our site covers: Asbestosis, Lung cancer.

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Cape Asbestos, Stomach Cancer, Amphibole Asbestos, Serpentine Group, Standing.

Related studies

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• The silence: the asbestos industry and early occupational cancer research--a case study — D.E. Lilienfeld (1991)
• Too little, too late? The home office and the asbestos industry regulations, 1931 — P. Bartrip (1998)
• Protest and survive, the U.K. Construction Safety Campaign: a case study of workers' and victims' family action and legal and regulatory inaction on construction health and safety — M. Holder, T. O'Brien (2007)
• Measurement of asbestos dust levels in British asbestos factories in the 1930s — N.J. Wikeley (1993)
• Re: Doll's 1955 study on cancer from asbestos — B.I. Castleman (2001)

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