Report on the Clinical Symptomatology and Pathology of Asbestosis (Translation) (1952)

This 1952 article was mainly a review of published literature. It described amphibole asbestos (tremolite, crocidolite, amosite) and chrysotile, their uses, and the dust from processing them, especially in the asbestos textile industry. It then summarized earlier reports on asbestosis. Most authors it cited gave an average exposure time of 3-5 years before symptoms indicating lung fibrosis appeared, though the article said this time varied. On cancer, it compiled other authors' autopsy reports: 309 asbestosis autopsies including 44 carcinomas (14.2%). Some series counted pleural endothelioma as carcinoma. By comparison, 2204 silicosis autopsies from the literature included 32 carcinomas (1.4%). A column marked "Our own", apparently the author's silicosis autopsies, listed 271 with 3 carcinomas (1.1%). In published individual cases of carcinoma in asbestosis patients, average exposure was 16.5 years. Average time from first exposure to death was 20 and 1/4 years. The author found the relatively high incidence of bronchial carcinoma hard to explain, considering a chemical cause hardly possible. The author said the mechanical-irritation explanation proposed by others had not been clarified. The available text appears incomplete.

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. Barry Castleman cites it in chapter 2, "Cancer", of Asbestos: Medical and Legal Aspects (5th ed., 2005); see Reading Castleman.

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.