In the 1930's the Association of Casualty and Surety Executives periodically published bulletins entitled, Bulletin of the Association of Casualty and Surety Executives. The following statement was on the cover of the bulletins: "The purpose of this Bulletin is to disseminate information bearing upon subjects of popular interest in the field of casualty insurance and suretyship and to answer the active propaganda for state intrusions into the field of insurance and of other lines of private enterprise."
Some excerpts:
April 1935
From Bulletin #40:
"Silicosis and Asbestosis in Great Britain- The following table is from a summary, published in Monthly Labor Review, December, 1934, of data relative to industrial diseases and poisonings contained in the Annual Report for 1933 of the Factory Department, Great Britain. The figures in the table are the statistics of deaths from silicosis and asbestosis that have been collected 'in the past few years'. The diagnosis in these cases has been confirmed by postmortem examinations." Here's the table.
July 1935
From Bulletin #41:
"Silicosis and Asbestosis in Great Britain- The following data are from Workmen's Compensation-Statistics of Compensation and Proceedings, 1933 (Home Office, London, 1935).
"In 1933, there were four "Schemes" for compensation for silicosis in force: The Refractories Industry Scheme (covering ganister mines and quarries and silica brick works); the Sandstone Industry Scheme; the Metal Grinding Industry Scheme; and the Various Industries Scheme (which covers a variety of processes in different industries, chiefly pottery, mining, silica or flint milling, stone masons, sand blasting and the mixing of ground silica).
"Asbestosis also, in certain specified processes, was compensable under the Asbestos Industry Scheme, which took effect June 1, 1931. Under that scheme, £229 was paid in one fatal case and £539 in 18 disablement cases, in 1932; and £162 in 2 fatal cases and £1,136 in 24 disablement cases in 1933."
February 1936
From Bulletin #43, excerpts from a review of the book "Industrial Medicine", by Clark and Drinker:
"Silicosis... presupposes a perfectly definite etiological factor, free silica or quartz, and embraces by far the greatest part of the morbid pathology for which dust inhalation is directly or indirectly responsible."
"Of the silicates so far studied only asbestos (and possibly sericite) have the specific power to produce disabling fibrosis of the lung tissue."
September 1936
From Bulletin #45, excerpts from a quote by Dr. Le Roy U. Gardner. Dr. Gardner made the folowing statement on October 1, 1935:
"Pneumoconiosis should be defined as a condition of the lungs resulting from the prolonged inhalation of dust. Only when this condition is due to a type of dust capable of producing serious and progressive changes in the lungs can a pneumoconiosis be considered a disease. At the present time only two kinds of dust are generally recognized as possessing such irritating properties, Silica, commonly found in nature as quartz, is a notorious offender, and asbestos, a silicate of magnesium is as bad if not worse...
"What constitutes an 'adequate exposure'? A man must be exposed day after day for a period of years to relatively high concentrations of dust. In the usual industrial concentrations of silica dust it takes from 5 to 20 years to produce silicosis; and from 7 to 11 years in asbestos to produce asbestosis. In rare cases, where the dust concentration is excessive, the time may be shortened to 2 years."
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