Document REG097qe5ERoXnwmKYxKynZa

In 1907, K Montagu^Hurray published the details of the first patient to die of a lung disease duo to the inhalation of asbestos -Oust. ,/i-caoistaged 33 who had work-in the carding room of an asbestos textile factory for 10 years and was the sola survivor of 10 men who had worked with him. He wee admitted to the Chariny Cross Hospital in 1809 end died in 1900. -*L. s In 1924 Vf B Cooke published in the BHJ 28.7.24. the post mortem findings and photos of sections 6>lung containing asbestos fibres end of air with asbestos dust in a patient dying p. the inhalation of asbestos. V*w t i 22 4.>ts / In 1927, 3 papers were published consecutively in the British Medical Journal. 3.12,27 by Cooke.who in this paper coined the word *asbestosis*, by McDonald who described the histology of asbestosis and by Oliver (Pref. of Medicine at Durham) who described the clinical characteristics of. asbeatosis and reported 2 other cases. ' Ztx 192 the report of the Director General of Public Health for NS* for 1927 contained a eoction by Dr Charles Dedham then Medical Officer of Industrial Hygiene on Asbestosis and Quoting Cooke'a case and a report by F V Simpson on "pulmonary Asbestosis in South Africa* published in BMJ 1928, IjBGS. .In 1930, Kerewether and Price published in a HMSo Publication <UK) the affect ^of eebeetoe dust on the lunge and dust suppression in the asbestos industry*1. They found that 26% of 363 employees in the asbestos textile industry had diffuse ppuXjnofiory fibrosis. d&fxif 3 ^/iVec ^ Sf3<>; tX .* In 1931, a committee was set up and asbestos industry regulations were gazetted the same year. This listed the affected processes and laid down methods to be adopted to reduce dust. /The Lancet Editorial on 19.4.30 reviewed Merewetftcr'# work, dealt with Price's recommendtions regarding safe* guards and streBthat th important factors in the development of asbestosis were the concentration of dust and the length of time of exposure. WV2M433 ........... 7 1931, 3 V Sparks, Radiologist at the London Chest Hospital, presented a..................... ' >er reporting 50 cases of esbestosia with post mortere findings in 6. The -nical features were described by Dr Burton Wood who pointed out that cessation exposure did not stop the progression of the disease. It was stated that * majority of workers got out of the industry after 4 years or less. , 1931 Burton Wood and Roodhouse Gloyne described in Lancet 1911,^19.54 5;7 es of asbestasis 10 of which were complicated by tuberculosis. 1933, S R Gloyne published in "Cublugl* (July 1933 l^^detailed account of s histology of eebestoois. In the same year in "TutSefrl"{December 1933M ^wether pointed out that exposure to asbestos dust for less than 5 years ild result .in death from asbestos!*. /} A1 Ofl ACS^fS^oS/S 1934, B Wood and S R Gloyne published in the Lancet 22.12.34, 2 cases of iestosis with cancer of the lung^in 100 patients with the disease asbeetosis. the following year Gloyno published in Tubve^T* a detailed autopsy report the 2 cases mentioned above. 1935, Lynch and Smith in the American Journal of Cancer described a case lung cancer in on asbestos worker (American Journal of Cancer) 24*56. 1938, Kerevether in his annual report* described asbestos dust as highly ngercus and reported 41.6% of 103 patients with asbestosis develop cancer the lung. 1933, Dr Charles Bedhare in the report of the Director General of Public slth for NSW reported the first case of asbestosie in Australia* the man s a mill hand. In 1938, Badham also reported asbeBtosie in insulating workers, tween 1935 and 1939 Dr Donald Hunter of the London Hospital gave a series post graduate lectures on Dust Dlseasoa end stressed the importance of asbestos, a disease was described in recognised textbooks of Respiratory Medicine. 1949, Kerevether published on important paper. It was his annual report the Chief Inspector of Factories for 1947. In it he steted that 13.21 of ft developing asbeetosie died of lung cancer whereas only 1.3% of eilicotics d so. In the some year the Journal of the American Medical Association 3.8.49) published an editorial on the subject. 1950, Gordon C. Smith who was then Director of the Division of Occupational aith in the Department of Health NSW, published en article on Factors in Irenary Dust Disease in Medical Journal of Australia 2S.ll.S0 pointing t that asbestos produced e severe pulmonary disease. 1951, S R Gloyne publishing in the Lancet 14.4.SI described 1205 necropsies ne between'1929 and 1949 in 124 of which he found eebeetosis. All of the tients with esbestosie had worked under the conditions laid down in the factories gulations of 1931 end 14.1% had died of lung cancer. February 1950, there was en ILO Conference in Sydney at the School of Public Ith at which asbestos related diseases were discussed, Kerewether was a aenter. The subject was again aired at the BMA Congress in Hay 1950 held Brisbane, !9SS^ Sir Richard Doll, Brit. louro. Ind. Ked. l955*12iSI established beyond bt the causal relationship between asbestosis and luhg caneer;--eny *rtbcatrion ch had first been seen in 1935. In necropsies on 105 persona employed in asbestos works, lung cancer was the cause of death in 18? 15 of these were eclated with esbestosis but 3 did not have esbastosis. the same year the Lancet published on editorial on the subject. I960, an important paper was published by j Wagner et al in Brit. Joum. - Ked. 1?260, This paper described a definitive link between asbestos cure and the development of a mesothelioma. For the first time, nonoccupational ards of asbestos exposure were reported for residents living nearby to asbestos ee. 1962, J C McNulty, KJA 2*953 reported the first cose of mesothelioma in trails in an asbestos worker. In 1968 at the Australian Pneumoconiosis .ference ha reported the experience of Wittenoom miners and mill workers ^matter of asbestosis and mesothelioma. see then a vast literature has been published on the hazards of asbestos it far as the asbestos industry is concerned a very .important publication appeared 1938 a study of aebestosie in the asbestos textile industry by w C Dresser* al. Public Health Bulletin Ho.241, August 1938 published by the United States 'ernment Printing Office, Washington 1938. This wee a study of 541 employees American asbestos textile mills which showed that numerous cases of asbeetosis /elpod levels greater than 5 million particles per* cubic foot of dust, 9 majority (333) had worked for less than 5 years, Dreasen concluded that the dust concentration in asbestos factories could be kept below 5 million rtlcles per cubic foot, new cases of asbeetosis probably would not appear. 3oi the above it is seen that at least in the medical profession there would ve been a wide knowledge of the dangers of asbestos by the middle of the 50*s. Because of the free passage of information between Australia, England & America, it is hard to believe that management of asbestos Industries would t have been aware of the dangers of asbestos at least in the mid 1950'g.