Casualties of the Workplace: V—A Question of the Patient's Rights

Our plain-English summary of Casualties of the Workplace: V—A Question of the Patient's Rights (1973).

The study

• Published: The New Yorker, November 26, 1973 (Annals of Industry)
• 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 is not a scientific study but a 1973 New Yorker article, the last of a series investigating what the author, Paul Brodeur, called a medical-industrial complex. The federal asbestos standard of June 6, 1972 allowed five fibres longer than five microns per cubic centimetre until July 1, 1976; NIOSH had recommended two. A medical survey at a beryllium plant in Hazleton, Pennsylvania found twenty-five of two hundred and nineteen workers with symptoms possibly related to beryllium disease. At a Mobil refinery, Dr. Selikoff found X-ray abnormalities consistent with asbestosis in more than half of nineteen workers. For the eight hundred and ninety-five men who worked at the Tyler, Texas amosite plant, NIOSH's Dr. Johnson estimated one hundred to two hundred excess asbestos-related cancer deaths. Dr. Selikoff predicted almost three hundred excess deaths, about a third of the men, from lung cancer, mesothelioma, other cancers and asbestosis combined. Court testimony said half the fibres in Duluth water samples were amphibole and about two per cent identical with amosite. The author argued that industry-linked consultants had helped suppress and ignore medical information.

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: magazine article (investigative journalism), the last of a series; not a research study
• Who was studied: No study population. The article reported the author's interviews and document review about several places, 1972 to 1973: the Tyler, Texas asbestos plant, a beryllium plant in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, a Mobil refinery in Paulsboro, New Jersey, and the Duluth, Minnesota water supply.
• Exposure: Mainly asbestos, including amosite at the Tyler plant and amosite-like amphibole fibres in Duluth water. Also beryllium, benzene, chloromethyl methyl ether / bis-chloromethyl ether and other chemical carcinogens.
• Main results:
  • The federal asbestos standard, declared June 6, 1972, allowed five asbestos fibres greater than five microns in length per cubic centimetre until July 1, 1976. After that date it would be lowered to two. NIOSH had recommended that a two-fibre standard go into effect within two years.
  • According to Mazzocchi, Dr. Kazemi surveyed two hundred and nineteen workers at the Hazleton beryllium plant. The survey found twenty-five with symptoms possibly related to beryllium disease and seven with abnormalities.
  • According to Wodka, Dr. Selikoff examined and X-rayed nineteen refinery workers at Mobil Paulsboro. More than half had X-ray abnormalities consistent with asbestosis.
  • Dr. Johnson (NIOSH) estimated between one hundred and two hundred excess deaths from asbestos-related cancer among the eight hundred and ninety-five men who worked at the Tyler plant.
  • Dr. Selikoff anticipated, for the Tyler workers, a hundred and fifty excess deaths from lung cancer, fifty from mesothelioma, an illegible number from cancers of the colon, rectum, stomach and esophagus, and fifty from asbestosis. He put the total at almost three hundred excess deaths, roughly a third of the men. These were predictions, not observed deaths.
  • In court testimony, Dr. Nicholson said a quart of Duluth water could contain twenty million to a hundred million amphibole fibres. Dr. Langer testified that half of all fibres in the Duluth water samples were amphibole, and that approximately two per cent of all fibres were identical with amosite.
  • Dr. Selikoff testified to preliminary findings on people who lived in the same house as Paterson plant workers: thirty-nine per cent showed X-ray abnormalities.
  • The article cited an article by Dr. Newhouse describing one patient with peritoneal mesothelioma. The patient recalled playing with asbestos on waste ground near a factory as a boy.
• The authors' conclusion: The author argued that a medical-industrial complex of industry-supported consultants and researchers was trying to do two things: suppress and ignore medical information on asbestos and other hazardous substances, and prevent effective enforcement of the Occupational Safety and Health Act.

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: NIOSH, Amosite, Lung Cancer, Mesothelioma, Amphibole Group.

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