ASBESTOS AND CANCER: THE FIRST THIRTY YEARS

The Mesothelioma Research Foundation of America

In the spring of 1976, I was asked by the Asbestos Information Association if I might have a student or students who, under my direction, could do a literature review for the purpose of preparing a history of the development of knowledge about the health effects of asbestos. The idea was to determine how at different points in time, the medical profession interpreted the research literature then available to it. I saw an important area for research here in regard to the relationship between asbestos and cancer, an area of interest to me since 1961 when I first became involved with occupational health. At that time I had joined the Division of Occupational Health of the U.S. Public Health Service- a predecessor of the present National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health. One of my first projects was to develop epidemiological data with regard to any relationship between asbestos dust exposure and lung cancer in the United States. The basis for this was an internal document that reviewed the literature and posed the question. Since then, many of my colleagues have.

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Asbestos Legislation Update
Research Interest in Asbestos-Related Cancer Intensifies
Nine Questions and Answers on Chrysotile and Health
Abstracts Found in Various Medical Journals Concerning Peritoneal Mesothelioma
Asbestos and Cancer - The First Thirty Years
Asbestos and Cancer - The International Lag
Asbestos in Drinking Water and Cancer Incidence in San Francisco
Asbestos Concentration On Marine Vessels
Asbestos in Strange Places: Two Case Reports of Mesothelioma Among Merchant Seamen
Asbestos in the Workplace and the Community
Asbestos-Related Disease in Plumbers and Pipefitters Employed in Building Construction
Malignant Mesothelioma of the pleura: current surgical pathology
Call for an International Ban on Asbestos
Chrysotile Asbestos is the Main Cause of Pleural Mesothelioma
Environmental asbestos exposure and malignant pleural mesothelioma

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