Document X1ZZLX0qDzNZ729eGEV7G6DK

2- Department conducted an investigation and enacted laws for the protection and conpensatioa of the worker against this hazard. The whole subject in England /(2) has been very well summarised by Mere-ether in a series of articles in Tubercle. it the present tine, as nearly as can be estimated, there are about 12,000 individuals eaployed in the chief asbestos plants in the United States of whoa, 10,000 might be exposed to asbestos dust. In 1927, a fatal case of unc'omnlicated asfcestosis tbs reoorted to the -------------------------------------- (3)""' -----------------:------------------ Kedical Society of South Carolina and since then, including this case, there have been eleven fatal cases reported in the United States, eight uncoaplicated and three complicated by tuberculosis. These reports, together with the fact that asbestosis figured in the extraordinary occupational disease litigation that has spread over this country, resulted in both laboratory and field stud ies of this new hazard. Gardner and Cummings at Saranac Lake commenced animal *---------------- (4) experimentation rith asbestos in 1923 and resorted their findings in 1931. ? ` (5) These two authorities in the United States and Gloyne in England have pro duced masterly descriptions of the pathology, nhile silicosis is predominantly pareuchymatous, asbestosis is mainly interstitial, nor is asbestosis character ized by the nodular formation so distinctive of silicosis. A search of all the death records on file in the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company revealed that asbestosis had been gj.ven as a cause or.con tributing cause of death in only nineteen cases. The first case noted was in 1924, two in 1927, or.e in 1931, and the rest since 1933. The diagnosis was supported by autopsy in only six. In one of these six, the primary cause of death was carcinoma; in another, glioma of the brain; and in another, pulmonary tuberculosis. Is the other three, asbestosis as given as the primary cause with cardiac failure as the contributing cause. Some of these cases were re ported in the literature. PQ. 6002 GUUZ L A /VZ * PROnT'rcn nv pabti