Asbestos: A Desk Reference for Communicators (1978)

This was not a research study but a question-and-answer desk reference for communicators. Its cover named the National Cancer Institute and the year 1978. The available text held only the cover, the table of contents, and the answer to the first of 22 questions, on who may be at risk. That answer said workers in asbestos mining and processing, shipyards, construction, and automotive brake lining repair commonly were exposed. It said risks had not been clearly defined for all exposed groups, and that firm scientific data existed only for heavily exposed workers in asbestos mining, manufacture and insulation. It said asbestos insulation workers were experiencing asbestosis and markedly increased cancer rates. It also said that painters, electricians, carpenters, machinists, boilermakers and welders in shipyards were beginning to show lung X-ray abnormalities typical of asbestos exposure. It estimated that 4.5 million persons worked in U.S. shipyards in 1940-44, and that 8 to 11 million workers had been exposed since the beginning of World War II.

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. J-M listed it in its medical library index as no. 004582.