The Insurance Industry and Asbestos

Liberty Mutual Insurance Company

Liberty Mutual was founded in 1912 and was a member of the National Association of Mutual Casualty Companies. In Liberty Mutual's 1932 Annual Report, it is stated that "a great number of claims are now being received for pulmonary diseases allegedly caused by the inhalation of silica and other dusts." Here is the excerpt from the 1932 Annual Report along with a 1935 letter from S. E. Whiting of Liberty Mutual to Dr. Leroy Gardner of the Saranac Laboratory in regard to autopsy material on asbestosis.

National Association of Mutual Casualty Companies

The National Association of Mutual Casualty Companies was organized in 1917. This was over twenty years after the creation of the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies, which was founded in 1895. Attached are excerpts from a 1958 National Association of Mutual Casualty Companies document, which discusses industrial solvents such as benzene. The association acknowledges the assistance of Warren Cook. Mr. Cook was a former director of the division of Industrial Hygiene and Engineering Research for the Zurich-American Insurance Companies.