Dust Inhalation in Relation to Pulmonary Disease (1951)

This article was a general review of how industrial dusts, fibers and fumes affect the lungs. It reported no new study or data. The author explained that diagnosing pneumoconiosis (lung disease caused by dust) requires two things: lung disease that the dust could have caused, and a work history of exposure to that dust. On asbestos, the author wrote that inhaling its fibers during mining or processing had been shown to cause progressive lung scarring (fibrosis), with shortness of breath, a dry cough and a "ground glass" haziness on chest x-rays. The author also wrote that asbestos had "on occasion" been indicated as predisposing to lung cancer. In the author's view, the only satisfactory proof that a dust causes cancer is a clearly higher, statistically significant cancer rate than in a comparable unexposed group. Talc containing under 1% free silica was described as causing fibrosis similar to asbestosis, and plaques on the pleural surfaces had been observed. The available text stops partway through, and the article continued in the March 1951 issue.

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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. 001918. Barry Castleman cites it in chapter 10, "Historical Research on Toxic Substances", of Asbestos: Medical and Legal Aspects (5th ed., 2005); see Reading Castleman.