Asbestos History: A Confusing and Conflict Filled Subject.

I am a Historian and not a scientist. The more I dig into the history, the more this (to me) becomes self-evident. Let’s discuss the 1991 article by scientist Phillip E. Enterline, PhD who claimed that, after reviewing the available literature existing between 1934 and 1965, there was no consensus in the United States that asbestos caused cancer until 1964. His article can be found at https://theasbestosblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/1991-Enterline-History-Review.pdf. Do me a favor — review the article to see if Dr. Enterline mentioned at any location that his research was funded by asbestos companies. I can’t find such a disclosure and find it somewhat odd that is is missing.

How do I know it was funded by asbestos companies? During my recent research, I came across the July 6, 1977 Minutes of Meeting of Executive Committee of the Asbestos International Association, typed in both English and French. Although these minutes are 14 years prior to the 1991 article, they discuss appointing a medical panel to prepare a report, and then notes:

“Mr. Marsh also reminded the meeting of the work being undertaken for AIA/NA by Dr. Enterline. This was a review of all published literature concerning asbestos and health, with a principal purpose of establishing the state of knowledge existing at times in the past. This work would be published in due course.”

See Section 5.4 below in the physical copy of the minutes. I cannot explain the 14 year delay and Dr. Enterline passed away in January 2014; as such, I am not able to reconcile his comments on his science, his funding, the intervening 14 years, and the potential undisclosed conflict other than as exists in the documents. However, the 1991 article certainly seems to cover the same material and efforts as described in the 1977 minutes.

Also of interest, Dr. Enterline alluded in his 1991 article to the concern over industry funding of research. As he stated on page 694 (please see the link above) when discussing why the delay in accepting asbestos caused cancer:

“There were economic reasons, since the asbestos industry probably exercised some control over research, and findings unfavorable to the use of asbestos were clearly not in their interest.”

This seems a reasonable statement in the context of the article, but it is without any explanation given that the industry also funded his research. I would very much have liked to circle back on this issue and had a discussion with the doctor on his thoughts and what was really going on. Instead, I will never know for sure other than by filling in the gaps with reasonable suppositions.

For those of you interested in this topic on the failure of science intersecting with asbestos, I have previously written The Disappearing Blog on Chrysotile Asbestos on March 5, 2021, https://theasbestosblog.com/?p=2052.

Let me know if you have any comments or suggestions on this blog either in the Comments Section or by an email to TheAsbestosBlog@gmail.com. Thank you. Marty