Saranac Program on the Investigation of Asbestosis and Pulmonary Cancer (1952)

This is the Saranac Laboratory's first interim report, dated May 7, 1952, on whether inhaled asbestos dust affected lung (pulmonary) tumors in mice. Two strains were used: strain C, described as susceptible to lung tumors, and strain C57 black, described as resistant. Comparable numbers of control mice of each strain were kept without dust, with the same housing and diet. The dust contained considerably more chrysotile than serpentine, with much of the chrysotile in thick unopened bundles, and about 1 to 2 per cent quartz. Mice were killed for study at intervals, and the report covered 14 months. The report found no tendency toward earlier tumors in exposed mice. Overall, tumors were found in 9.5 per cent of 179 exposed mice and in 10 of 181 control mice (5.5 per cent). The authors said this difference could have occurred by chance and was not statistically significant. Tumors had begun to rise at the 14-month kill in both groups, more so among exposed mice. The authors said again that the differences were not statistically significant. The experiment was not complete.

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. It was among the papers J-M kept in its medical library without an index entry.

We publish this piece for research and commentary: it shows what the medical literature in a leading asbestos company's own library said on the subject, and when. Our summary above is our own reading of it. The copyright stays with the publisher.