Pulmonary Asbestosis in South Africa (1928)

This article, by a pathologist at the South African Institute for Medical Research, described lung tissue from four people from one Southern Rhodesian asbestos mine. Two were adult African men who had worked in its mill. One had worked there twelve months and died with miliary tuberculosis. His lungs showed connective tissue change with no obvious connection to the tuberculosis, plus golden yellow segmented bodies. The other, two years in the mill, had marked fibrosis without evidence of tuberculosis. Two cases from earlier records had lobar pneumonia, little fibrosis and the same bodies. Chemical tests indicated the bodies contained a large percentage of iron. The bodies were absent from lungs of many Rand miners who died of silicosis and tuberculosis, and of one haematite miner. A guinea pig exposed experimentally to chrysotile dust showed slight fibrosis and similar bodies. The author concluded the fibrosis was probably a reaction to the bodies and a small quantity of silica. The author noted too few cases existed to judge liability to infections like tuberculosis, but found it very suggestive that two cases showed it.

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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. 003112.