Asbestos and Human Health with Recommendations in Research (1967)

This 1967 report by W. Clark Cooper was a review, not a new study. It drew on published research, a 1964 New York Academy of Sciences conference, a working group of the International Union Against Cancer, and a U.S. Public Health Service meeting. The author called asbestosis the best known and most clearly established health effect. The author wrote that it was highly questionable whether the threshold limit of 5 million particles per cubic foot would prevent asbestosis over a working lifetime. From the studies reviewed, the author found little doubt of a strong association between working with asbestos and lung cancer, less striking with chrysotile alone. Evidence linking asbestos, at least crocidolite, to diffuse tumors of the pleura and peritoneum was called very strong. Evidence on stomach and colon cancer was judged insufficient to evaluate. Routine autopsy studies had reported asbestos bodies in 26.4% to 57.6% of cases, but whether these were truly asbestos was unknown. The author concluded that research was needed in people, animals and the environment, and listed priorities.

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.