Asbestos Industry Trade Groups Cover Up Evidence of Mesothelioma
Throughout its history, the Asbestos Industry has protected its interests through a number of trade groups reflecting various segments of asbestos production and manufacturing. These include the Asbestos Textile Institute, the Brake Lining Manufacturers Association, the Quebec Asbestos Mining Association, the Friction Materials Standards Institute, the Asbestos Information Association, the Asbestosis Research Council, and the Asbestos Institute.
All of these organizations had the same goals: to promote asbestos products and to improve conditions for the marketing of asbestos products. Some asbestos companies were members of several of these groups, and they occasionally had intergroup meetings at which the health threat related to diseases like asbestosis, mesothelioma and lung cancers was discussed.
The methods of these industry groups may be familiar to those who have studied the Tobacco Institute. When faced with evidence that asbestos causes cancers like mesothelioma, the groups attempt to find weaknesses and “unanswered questions” in the evidence. Rather than acting on the evidence and warning their customers, the asbestos industry trade groups took the approach that “more study was warranted.” In several cases, they commissioned studies themselves, enlisting friendly doctors and other researchers who would give the asbestos companies cover by initiating long term studies.
If the results of these studies were unfavorable, the asbestos trade groups would either bury or attempt to soften the conclusions reached by the doctors. The industry groups also actively lobbied Congress and other governmental agencies to forestall or avoid regulation of asbestos.
In the early part of the 20th Century, the evidence of asbestos hazards came from studies of disease among asbestos company employees that were conducted by governmental agencies or outside researchers. For instance, the first large scale study of disease among asbestos workers was a study of an asbestos textile factory conducted by E.A. Merewether of the British Public and published in medical journals in 1930.
In 1937, representatives of several asbestos textile companies, including Johns Manville, Raybestos Manhattan, Thermoid Company, Southern Asbestos and others met to discuss a jointly sponsored study that could be conducted to concerning asbestos hazards. From the beginning, they agreed to distribute the study to medical professionals only if it was helpful.
They hired the Saranac Laboratory in Saranac, New York to expose experimental animals to asbestos and to record the results. Although it was intended as a study of asbestosis, in 1938 it was noted that by Dr. Leroy Gardner of Saranac that several of the experimental animals exposed to asbestos had developed lung tumors. These disturbing results were shared with members of the Quebec Asbestos Mining Association.
When the results of the studies were finally prepared for publication in 1948, several asbestos companies and members of the Asbestos Textile Institute met in the Johns Manville Boardroom and agreed that permission for publication would only be given if all references to cancer were deleted. The sanitized version of the report was published the following year in the Journal of Industrial Hygiene, and copies were sent to the members of the Quebec Asbestos Mining Association.
It was in this fashion, that the hazards of asbestos were kept from many employees and the general public until long after exposure had done its damage and caused many illness and deaths due to lack of warning and protection. If you have been diagnosed with mesothelioma, please contact our asbestos attorneys who can help you get compensated by companies and manufacturers who knew of the dangers yet failed to prevent harmful exposure.
