Richard Doll: An Englishman who made a Difference

As many of you have figured out, I have an extensive repository of historical asbestos related documents. The large number of diverse documents provides me the opportunity to help broaden our collective knowledge. Let’s go English this week with a 1985 publication by Sir Richard Doll which is a great primer for people trying to understand asbestos basics.

Initially, I like Richard Doll, the English scientist/physician epidemiologist who pioneered research into so many different health related areas, including lung cancer and asbestos. The Wikipedia summary begins as follows:

I acknowledge the controversy arising from him accepting funding from industry, but the rationale as to what he did and why he did it makes a lot of sense.

My favorite asbestos work from Sir Doll is his 58 page publication in 1985 for the Health and Safety Commission entitled Effects on Health of Exposure to Asbestos.

The coverage is simple to read and to understand. And yet, it is pretty comprehensive from a scientist’s scientist angle.

One of the most fascinating discussions is the breadth of asbestos related injuries: lung cancer and laryngeal cancer; yes, with strong evidence; gastro-intestinal cancers, likely not; Oesophagus cancer, need more evidence and so judgement reserved.

This is absolutely a worthwhile read for those people just getting up to speed on asbestos related health issues, even given that it is almost 40 years old. I believe that electronic copies of this book are readily available of the internet. If you cannot find a copy, let me know.

Let me know what you think. I can be reached either in the comments or at TheAsbestosBlog@gmail.com. Thanks. Marty