Document g21RN4dYON8kkbR97LwjabLN9

(Original in long hand) North Beightons Lowerfold Rochdale, Ltnon. t. Ihgland December 3, 1953 Dear Dr. v^mith:. It waa VI nd of you to' send greetings and the paper on occupational cancer per John Beattie. I have read it with great interest. I am afraid that I am over due with information which I promised to let you have last year. When I returned home I vent through all my documents' relating to carcinoma of the lung and asbestosis and found as usual - that there were some gaps to be made good. 1 did a search for the. missing information through coroners'files and other places and felt in. May in a position to .approach Richard Doll with ay figures. As expected they were not complete enough about the population at ridt. and /. we decided to concentrate. on men who had been in the industry for in yrs. or more.- Ve would have liked the 10 & 15 yr.. groups but while we knew the numbers ve did .not know the fate * of all these in detail as the war.years were included and there was a considerable dispersion of workers. After ah interview and some correspondence he has just reported on this 20 yr. group*. Ahis was a group of 114. men with 11 carcinomas of the lung and asbestosis. All who had died in the group - 39 - had been' autopaied so the information was.fairly complete. Doll has concluded that (1) the data collected are adequate for testing whether prolonged and heavy exposure to asbestos dust predisposed to lung cancer on grounds of completeness and size. .(2) that asbestosis is. In fa.ct,. associated with a heavy risk of development of lung cancer & (3) that the: risk to which men are exposed - if oyer 20 yrs. or more in conditions which have in the past obtained in the industry - is of the order of ten times that to which members of the general; public (men) are subject. The appropriate table 1st Cause of Death Lxpected No.' of Deaths Pul.. TB- 1.0 Cancer of lung All other respiratory .3 & cardiovascular . diseases 7.0 All other cancer 2.3 All other causes 5.Q _ _. TOTAL 16.1 - Actual Deaths 1* 11 21 4 2 39 *0ne of the persons with lung cancer also had pul. tuberculosis. This is Just the summary and I will let you have the whole thing later.' There are many interesting qualifying facts about the whole matter which I have gathered and a certain amount of information showing that the cn^\ From Dr. Knox 2 trend La being reversed. I do not think that the milder type of asbestosia we now see will produce carcinoma in this volume. A survey in Xfcc five years from now will demonstrate the truth or otherwise of this view. I have not yet discussed this information with my directors so I hope you will consider it confidential as far as publication is concerned. I hope to write this up but a little period must elapse before I can find time - I am still in general practicel I hear that you have got the other paper from John Beattie. It was not as polished as I would have liked but the material is quite interesting I think. We- worked on it on a final hectic week-end visit which John paid to me and it benrs traces of the rush of those days. I wonder if it has proved acceptable to the publishers and if so wnen is it likely to appear. The British industrial medical group meets in July next in Manchester and I wonder if it vill be in print by then. / Your family will be growing fast. The lively boy will probably be livelier than e--- and the little baby who slept so peacefully through my Sunday afternc I;it is probably e match for him now. May I send my respects, to your *.;o was so kind to me on my visit to you. My wife joins me in sending Christmas Greetings to you all and hope that in your future wanderings you may pay a visit -to Rochdale and stay with us. . By the way Dr. Lanza looked us up one day and had a look around. Prof. R. E. Lane come:with him. It war hig first visit to us and thy both seemed interested in what they saw. v e are in the throes of a major development plan at the Turner Works end and hope this will finally solve our dust problem. We propose to do quite a bit of oiling of fibre as well as damping and will use non-carcinogenic oil. (This is also a cotton mule spinning area and I have seen many epitheliomata of the scrotum in my time). If you have managed to read this length you have done well & I will not prolong the agony, i All the best, John F. Kndx ^ ^, / J . (signed) (