Perspectives on the knowledge of asbestos disease in the United States - what was known, by whom, and when

Our plain-English summary of Perspectives on the knowledge of asbestos disease in the United States - what was known, by whom, and when, by W.H. Bullock (Critical Reviews in Toxicology, 2020).

The study

• Author: W.H. Bullock
• Journal: Critical Reviews in Toxicology
• Published: 2020;50(8):673-676
• Type of article: Review
• Cited by: 1 article, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

Abstract

Historical research on asbestos disease can be traced back to the early twentieth Century. The majority, if not all of the early research was conducted outside the United States. There are a number of historical time-lines published that chronical these studies. However, what these time-lines do not address is how widespread this information was, who had access to it, and who may have been furthering this research here in the United States. To address these questions, we can look to the writings of early pioneers in occupational medicine like Alice Hamilton and Carey P. McCord from that era to determine the extent that asbestos disease was mentioned or being discussed. Based on the works of Dr. Hamilton and Dr. McCord, the dissemination and penetration of knowledge about asbestos within the medical and industrial hygiene communities during the first half of the twentieth Century in the United States were very limited or non-existent.

In plain English

This commentary collected no new data. The author asked how widely early European research on asbestos disease was known in the United States during the first half of the twentieth century. To answer this, the author looked at writings by occupational medicine pioneers Alice Hamilton and Carey P. McCord and at U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports. The author reported that the first and second editions of Hamilton's textbook Industrial Toxicology did not refer to asbestos as a hazard, and that the 1974 edition was the first to address asbestos in any significant way. The earliest Bureau of Labor Statistics reference to asbestos the author found was in a 1933 report. McCord's writings did not mention asbestos as a potential occupational health hazard. The author concluded that knowledge of, and access to, peer-reviewed work on asbestos was scarce in the United States before the sixties. The author also concluded that widespread awareness among medical and industrial hygiene practitioners began in the mid-sixties, after work by Selikoff and colleagues. The author noted that this view differs from that of Castleman and Egilman et al.

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: Commentary (historical perspective based on published writings; no new data collected)
• Who was studied: No study population. The author examined the writings and publications of Dr. Alice Hamilton and Dr. Carey P. McCord, and U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports, covering the first half of the twentieth century in the United States.
• Exposure: Asbestos in general, with no fiber type specified. The topic was historical knowledge of asbestos disease, not exposure measurements.
• Main results:
  • Hamilton's Industrial Toxicology (first edition) did not contain any reference to asbestos as a hazard of industrial importance in the United States.
  • The second edition of Industrial Toxicology also did not include asbestos as an occupational health hazard. The 1974 edition was the first to address asbestos in any significant way.
  • Asbestos was not listed in the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Hazards reports of 1913, 1915 or 1922. The first reference appeared in the 1933 report.
  • McCord's writings did not mention asbestos as a potential occupational health hazard.
  • Early U.S. Public Health Service industrial hygiene work on asbestos disease was limited to industries with high exposures to raw asbestos fiber.
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that there was a dearth of knowledge about, and access to, peer-reviewed works on asbestos in the United States before the sixties. The author placed the start of widespread awareness among medical and industrial hygiene practitioners in the mid-sixties, after the Selikoff work, and stated that this view is contrary to claims by Castleman and Egilman et al.

Topics

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

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Philip Carey Manufacturing Company, Industrial Hygiene.

Related studies

• Response to Letter to the Editor from Egilman, Castleman and Bird (2020) concerning Bullock (2020), Perspectives on the knowledge of asbestos disease in the United States - what was known, by whom and when — W.H. Bullock (2020)
• Asbestos disease in United States shipyards — I.J. Selikoff, R. Lilis, et al. (1979)
• Projection of asbestos related diseases in the United States, 1985-2009. I. Cancer — D.E. Lilienfeld, J.S. Mandel, et al. (1988)
• Geologic occurrences of erionite in the United States: an emerging national public health concern for respiratory disease — B.S. Van Gosen, T.A. Blitz, et al. (2013)
• Diseases attributable to asbestos exposure: years of potential life lost, United States, 1999-2010 — K.M. Bang, J.M. Mazurek, et al. (2014)
• Mesothelioma: a soon to be forgotten disease in the United States? — D. Thomas, R. Geck, et al. (2012)

Browse more research in Critical Reviews in Toxicology, or return to medical research.