Industrial Cancer of the Lungs (1952)

This narrative overview of industrial lung cancer, apparently first given as a lecture, was written by the head of the New York State Division of Industrial Hygiene's Medical Unit. The text ends by announcing a continuation in the July issue, which is not included here. Reviewing diseases caused by breathing workplace dusts, gases and fumes, the author grouped asbestos with silica among the pneumoconiosis dusts and wrote that silicosis was not linked to lung cancer. The asbestosis sentence is damaged in the scan. However, the author then asked what accounts for 'one being carcinogenic and not the other,' which indicates that the author regarded asbestos, unlike silica, as linked to lung cancer. The author also summarized other researchers' studies that found high lung cancer rates in chromate workers. The Division's own X-rays of 684 photo-engravers, who were exposed to ammonium bichromate and asphalt, found no lung tumors. A review of union health records was inconclusive. The author concluded that respiratory cancer did not seem necessarily tied to chronic irritation from workplace air contaminants, though the data were too limited for a final judgment.

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.

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. 001908.