when was asbestosis first recorded by medical authorities
Asbestos The first diagnosis of asbestosis was made in the UK in 1924.[43][45][46] Nellie Kershaw was employed at Turner Brothers Asbestos in Manchester, England from 1917, spinning raw asbestos fibre into yarn.[46][47] Her death in 1924 led to a formal inquest. Pathologist Dr William Edmund Cooke testified that his examination of the lungs indicated old scarring indicative of a previous, healed, tuberculosis infection, and extensive fibrosis, in which were visible "particles of mineral matterÂ ... of various shapes, but the large majority have sharp angles."[45] Having compared these particles with samples of asbestos dust provided by Dr S.A. Henry, His Majesty's Medical Inspector of Factories, Cooke concluded that they "originated from asbestos and were, beyond a reasonable doubt, the primary cause of the fibrosis of the lungs and therefore of death".[46][48]