Corruption of occupational medical literature: the asbestos example

Our plain-English summary of Corruption of occupational medical literature: the asbestos example, by H. Hardy, D. Egilman (American Journal of Industrial Medicine, 1991).

The study

• Authors: H. Hardy, D. Egilman
• Journal: American Journal of Industrial Medicine
• Published: 1991;20(1):127-9
• Type of article: Letter
• Cited by: 14 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

In plain English

This was a letter to the editor, not a research study; it drew on earlier papers, unpublished reports, correspondence and one author's recollections rather than original measurements. The authors argued that for several decades some asbestos-industry researchers had suppressed and altered results to protect their sponsors. They wrote that a 1953 paper co-written by one of them, which included two lung cancer cases, was being misread as endorsing five million particles per cubic foot of air as a safe working level. In the authors' reading, that passage referred to animal studies at the Saranac Laboratory. They said a 1946 survey of pipe coverers had been taken out of context; it reported a 6% incidence of moderate and advanced asbestosis among insulators with 10 or more years in the trade. The authors stated that Dr. Gardner's cat and mouse studies indicating asbestos was a lung carcinogen were struck from a draft of Vorwald's 1951 paper at the controlling companies' request. They added that a second positive animal study by Vorwald remained unpublished. The authors concluded the asbestos tragedy need not have occurred.

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: Letter to the editor (opinion and historical commentary; no original study)
• Who was studied: No study population. The letter discusses earlier published papers, unpublished drafts and reports, correspondence from the 1930s to the 1950s, and one author's recollections of the Saranac Laboratory in 1946.
• Exposure: Asbestos dust in general, including insulation (pipe covering) work. No specific fiber type is named.
• Main results:
  • The authors asserted that for several decades some researchers working for the asbestos industry suppressed and altered research results to protect their sponsors.
  • According to the authors, the 1953 paper's statement accepting five million particles per cubic foot as the safe working concentration was meant to apply to animal studies at the Saranac Laboratory.
  • The authors noted that the 1946 Fleischer et al. paper reported a 6% incidence of moderate and advanced asbestosis among insulators with 10 or more years in the trade.
  • The authors stated that Dr. Gardner performed animal studies on cats and mice indicating that asbestos was a lung carcinogen.
  • The authors stated that Dr. Lanza directed that Gardner's animal data be struck from a draft of Vorwald's 1951 paper at the request of the controlling companies.
  • The authors stated that a second positive animal study, performed by Vorwald for the Quebec Asbestos Mining Association, remained unpublished.
  • The authors wrote that Enterline's unpublished draft conceded that by 1953 the link between mesothelioma and asbestos was fairly well resolved, while his published paper said the asbestos cancer hazard was not known until 1964.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that the asbestos tragedy need not have occurred and that research workers and companies must learn from it.

Topics

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

Related studies

• Professional exposure to carcinogenic substances: is occupational physicians' activity compatible with medical ethics and deontology? — B. Clin, M. Letourneux, et al. (2008)
• Corporate corruption of medical literature: asbestos studies concealed by W.R. Grace & Co — D. Egilman, W. Wallace, et al. (1998)
• Corruption of the medical literature: a second visit — D.S. Egilman, C.M. Hom (1998)
• Corporate corruption of science-Another asbestos example — D. Egilman, R. Monárrez (2017)
• Toxic torts: are they poisoning the scientific literature? — P.E. Enterline (1996)
• Stopping the active intervention: CARET — D.J. Bowen, M. Thornquist, et al. (2003)

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