Pulmonary Asbestosis (1928)

This was an unsigned editorial in the Journal of the American Medical Association, not an original study. It described a 1927 case report by W. E. Cooke, which it called only the second reported case of pulmonary asbestosis. A woman began to cough soon after starting work in an asbestos factory at age 13. Her general health did not suffer until 26, she was totally incapacitated five years later, and she died at 33. At postmortem her lungs showed diffuse interstitial pneumonia, chronic bronchitis, some empyema, anthracosis and extensive tuberculosis. They also held unusual foreign bodies thought to be altered portions of asbestos fibers. The editorial said it remained an open question whether the fibrosis came more from tuberculosis or from asbestos, though considerable fibrosis had been found in one case without apparent tuberculosis. It reported an analysis showing that carding-room dust contained 18.4 per cent iron (as ferrous oxide). It also told of a carding-room worker who said he was the only survivor of ten men who had started work with him. It said modern factories now had dust-removal devices.

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From J-M's medical library

This copy comes from the Johns-Manville medical library. J-M listed it in its medical library index as no. 003110. Barry Castleman cites it in chapter 1, "The Development of Knowledge About Asbestosis", of Asbestos: Medical and Legal Aspects (5th ed., 2005); see Reading Castleman.