Dr. Paul Gross of the Industrial Hygiene Foundation, Report on the Case of Frank Carlisle for Johns-Manville (1961)

A report of November 1961 by Dr. Paul Gross of the Industrial Hygiene Foundation for Johns-Manville on Frank Carlisle (IHF Lab No. A61-2), a J-M worker whose left upper lung lobe was removed in March 1961. Gross reviewed a copy of Carlisle's complete J-M medical file, sent by the plant physician, Dr. C. U. Culmer, and the removed lobe. The file showed early, non-specific changes of pneumoconiosis on a 1954 X-ray and a note by Culmer of October 23, 1954: "Possible early pneumoconiosis. Should be removed from exposure to noxious dust." Gross's diagnosis was "Tuberculosilicosis, active," "Asbestosis," and "No evidence of neoplasia."

What it shows

The work history in the same report lists Carlisle's jobs from 1946: unloader, mixer operator, grinder operator from 1953, and car unloader from 1956 until his medical leave in February 1961, with dust exposure to asbestos or fiber and silica throughout, "14 years, 10 months, 28 days" in all. The surgery had been done quickly because "Oat cells were described in his bronchial secretions"; Gross found no cancer, and could not say how much of the lung damage was due to asbestosis and how much to tuberculosis. Gross's covering letter is his letter of November 14, 1961. Culmer and the Lake County Tuberculosis Sanatorium point to J-M's Waukegan, Illinois, plant, but the report does not name it.