Lung Cancer and Occupation (Translation) (1938)

This 1938 article, by the Industrial Physician of the State of Bavaria, reviewed published reports on lung cancer and occupation and added the author's own observations. It covered three areas: dust, irritant chemicals and radiation. On dust in general, the author believed that inhaling dust could not in itself be accepted as a practically important cause of lung cancer. On asbestos, the author cited reports of lung cancer in combination with asbestosis and noted that a total of 12 such cases were known. The author considered specific causation quite possible because of how asbestos needles act on tissue, but said further experience was needed to tell whether these were isolated cases. The article described 38 recorded cases of lung cancer in chromate workers in Germany. It attributed lung cancer in the Schneeberg and Joachimsthal miners to radioactivity in the mine water and mine air. The author concluded that irritation from dust, gases and vapors was not in general a cause of lung cancer. The author nonetheless listed workers in asbestos dust, and especially chrome workers, among the groups most exposed to lung cancer.

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.