Statement of Concern for Johns-Manville at the University of Toronto Asbestos Seminar (1977)

This statement of concern, not a research study and reporting no new data, was given by Dr. Paul Kotin of Johns-Manville Corporation as industry spokesman at a University of Toronto public seminar on asbestos, March 15, 1977. The author stated that occupational asbestos exposure has been associated with asbestosis and increased risk of mesothelioma and bronchogenic cancer in a percentage of past-exposed workers. The author added that asbestos-linked gastrointestinal cancer has a significantly lower attack rate, and that bronchogenic cancer is virtually limited to workers who smoke cigarettes. The author cited an unnamed major study in which smokers with asbestosis appeared to have double the age-adjusted death rates of nonsmokers with asbestosis. The statement said isolated instances of lung changes and mesothelioma had been reported in household contacts of asbestos workers. It said reports of disease in residents near asbestos milling and manufacturing facilities had been published, and that disease had been identified in construction workers installing and removing insulation. The author concluded that industry's objectives do not differ from those of labor, government and other groups.

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.