Re: Attitudes and opinions regarding asbestos and cancer, 1937-1965

Our plain-English summary of Re: Attitudes and opinions regarding asbestos and cancer, 1937-1965, by D.J. Kilpatrick, M. Kottek (American Journal of Industrial Medicine, 1994).

The study

• Authors: D.J. Kilpatrick, M. Kottek
• Journal: American Journal of Industrial Medicine
• Published: 1994;25(3):461-2
• Type of article: Comment, Historical article, Letter
• Cited by: 6 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

Summary of the article

This letter to the editor responded to a 1993 commentary by Prof. Harrington on Prof. Enterline's 1991 article, "Changing Attitudes and Opinions Regarding Asbestos and Cancer 1934-1965." The authors addressed Harrington's observation, based on a personal communication from Nick Wikeley, that in January 1932 a trade unionist in Britain had suggested to Sir Thomas Legge, described as "then Chief Medical Inspector of Factories," that cancer might be a complication of asbestosis. To check Legge's position at that date, the authors quoted at length from the preface that Dr. S.A. Henry, HM Medical Inspector of Factories, wrote in June 1934 for Legge's posthumously published book, Industrial Maladies. According to Henry, Legge resigned as Senior Medical Inspector of Factories on 29 November 1926, after the British Government refused to ratify the Geneva White Lead Convention, which he had helped to draft. In December 1929 he accepted the post of Medical Adviser to the Trades Union Congress, and he died on 7 May 1932 at the age of 69. The authors concluded that, assuming Henry was correct about Legge's appointments, the trade union communication described by Harrington would have occurred 2 years into Legge's post with the Trades Union Congress and some 5 years after his resignation as Senior Medical Inspector of Factories.

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 is a letter to the editor, not a research study, and it reported no new data. The authors were responding to a 1993 commentary by Harrington on a 1991 article by Enterline about changing attitudes to asbestos and cancer between 1934 and 1965. Harrington had written that in January 1932 a British trade unionist suggested to Sir Thomas Legge, described as then Chief Medical Inspector of Factories, that cancer might be a complication of asbestosis. The authors quoted at length from Dr. S.A. Henry's preface to Legge's posthumously published 1934 book, Industrial Maladies. According to that preface, Legge resigned as Senior Medical Inspector of Factories on 29 November 1926, after the British Government refused to ratify the Geneva White Lead Convention. He accepted the post of Medical Adviser to the Trades Union Congress in December 1929 and died on 7 May 1932. The authors concluded that, assuming Henry was correct, the 1932 communication would have come about two years into Legge's Trades Union Congress post and some five years after his resignation as Senior Medical Inspector of Factories.

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 commenting on a published commentary (historical note; no study data)
• Who was studied: No study population; the letter concerns the career dates of Sir Thomas Legge, drawn from Dr. S.A. Henry's preface to Legge's 1934 book Industrial Maladies
• Main results:
  • The letter responded to Harrington's statement that in January 1932 a British trade unionist suggested to Sir Thomas Legge, described as then Chief Medical Inspector of Factories, that cancer might be a complication of asbestosis
  • According to Henry's preface, in 1926 the British Government refused to ratify the Geneva White Lead Convention
  • According to Henry's preface, Legge resigned as Senior Medical Inspector of Factories on 29 November 1926
  • According to Henry's preface, Legge was offered the post of Medical Adviser to the Trades Union Congress in December 1929
  • According to Henry's preface, Legge died on 7 May 1932 at age 69
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that, assuming Henry was correct about Legge's appointments, the trade union communication described by Harrington would have occurred 2 years into Legge's post with the Trades Union Congress, some 5 years after his resignation as Senior Medical Inspector of Factories
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The authors' timing point depends on Henry's account of Legge's appointments being correct

Related studies

• Re: "Changing attitudes and opinions regarding asbestos and cancer 1934-1965" — R. Ehrlich, J. Myers (1992)
• Changing attitudes and opinions regarding asbestos and cancer 1934-1965 — P.E. Enterline (1991)
• Re: "Changing attitudes and opinions regarding asbestos and cancer 1934-1965" — J. Keane (1992)
• Re: "Changing opinions and attitudes regarding asbestos and cancer 1934-1965" — G. Berry (1992)
• Re: Attitudes and opinions regarding asbestos and cancer, 1934-1965 — J.M. Harrington (1993)
• Re: Historical reasons for attitudes and opinions regarding asbestos and cancer, 1934-1965 — M. Corn, J.K. Corn (1993)

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