Casualties of the Workplace IV - No Tangible Effect on Sales and Earnings

Our plain-English summary of Casualties of the Workplace IV - No Tangible Effect on Sales and Earnings, by P. Brodeur (1973).

The study

• Author: P. Brodeur
• Published: The New Yorker, November 19, 1973
• Our copy: from Johns-Manville's own medical library. The article is still under copyright, so we describe it here rather than post it.

In plain English

This New Yorker article, fourth of five in a series, was investigative journalism, not a scientific study. The author described how U.S. asbestos dust limits were set in 1971 and 1972. A temporary emergency limit of five fibres longer than five microns per cubic centimetre of air replaced a twelve-fibre limit. The permanent rule kept five fibres for four more years before a two-fibre level was scheduled to apply. A consulting firm's report, omitting Dr. Selikoff's estimates, concluded that five fibres would achieve more than 99% of attainable benefits. Dr. Selikoff had estimated that fifty-five of a hundred workers exposed to two fibres per cubic centimetre for forty years would develop asbestosis. A Mount Sinai study found sixty-five more deaths than expected over thirteen years among six hundred and eighty-nine Johns-Manville workers in Manville, New Jersey, most of the excess due to asbestos-induced disease. The article described up to a tenfold difference between two sets of X-ray findings at a British factory whose data underpinned the British two-fibre recommendation. The author suggested that questionable industry-supplied data might have misled officials. The article also covered beryllium and several chemical carcinogens.

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.

What the study did and found

• Design: investigative magazine article (journalism), fourth of a series of five; not a research study
• Who was studied: no study population; the article followed the setting of the U.S. federal asbestos standard in 1971-1972, including public hearings held in Washington, D.C., in March 1972, along with related events in England and Ontario
• Exposure: occupational exposure to asbestos dust, measured in fibres longer than five microns per cubic centimetre of air; the twelve-, five- and two-fibre standards were compared
• Main results:
  • In December 1971 a temporary emergency standard of five asbestos fibres longer than five microns per cubic centimetre of air replaced the twelve-fibre standard then in effect
  • The permanent standard kept the five-fibre level in effect for four more years before a two-fibre level was scheduled to apply, despite NIOSH and Advisory Committee recommendations for two fibres
  • A Mount Sinai mortality study reported sixty-five more deaths than expected over thirteen years among six hundred and eighty-nine workers at Johns-Manville's plant in Manville, New Jersey; the vast majority of the excess deaths were from asbestos-induced disease
  • The Arthur D. Little report concluded that reducing exposure to five fibres would significantly reduce asbestos-related disease and achieve more than 99% of attainable benefits
  • The Arthur D. Little report's Table 2 excluded Dr. Selikoff's responses. It gave fewer than one in a hundred workers developing asbestosis after forty years at two fibres per cubic centimetre, whereas Dr. Selikoff had estimated fifty-five of a hundred
  • For forty years at five fibres per cubic centimetre, Table 2 gave two in a thousand workers developing mesothelioma, whereas Dr. Selikoff had estimated seven out of a hundred
  • The British two-fibre recommendation rested on data from two Turner Brothers employees. Their review of chest X-rays of two hundred and ninety long-term workers found only eight that could be diagnosed as asbestotic
  • A later X-ray assessment by Dr. Lewinsohn at the same factory, as analysed by Dr. Nicholson, showed as much as a tenfold difference in the incidence of X-ray changes characteristic of asbestosis
  • At Holmes Insulation, Ltd., in Ontario, six or seven of a work force of fifty to seventy-five men had X-ray signs consistent with developing asbestosis
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that two men employed by the British asbestos industry had furnished questionable data that might have misled occupational-health officials. On that view, the two-fibre standard could lack medical or scientific validity.

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Johns-Manville.

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