Document 067RgEkjMDRGR15MG8qV4k2on

J. B. HAF F N E R, PRES IDENT J, M. BOWLBY, VICE PRESIDENT K .C . BROWNELL., VICE PRESIDENT U, A. MARTINO, VICE PRESIDENT ROBERT LINDLEY ZIEGFELO, SECRETARY-TREASURER 420 LEXINGTON AVENUE SEW YORK 17, N.Y. MANF RE D BOWDI TCH DIRECTOR OF HEALTH AND SAFETY February 1$, 1956 Robert A. Kehoe, M.D., Director Kettering Laboratory University of Cincinnati Eden Avenue Cincinnati 19, Ohio Dear Bob: I don't know to what extent you are familiar with the goingson of Mr. F. J. Schlink, the doughty editor of Consumers* Research Bulletin, who bolds forth fromWashington, NewJersey. Alot of his stuff is good, but plenty is questionable, and I would place in the latter category the attempt to resurrect the plumbic evaporated milk ghost of which a copy is herew'ith. 1 have gone after the man on such an assortment of subjects that I*d rather not be the one to berate him on this one. Are you in a mood to take a crack at him? Sincerely, MB:GW Enclosure K ^ 0014319 Dry or Powdered Milk-- and the problemof lead infood and beverages AT the suggestion of our readers who were Monier-Williams) considers that a total daily interested in the article on "Evaporated lead intake of 0.5 to 1mg. (that is fromabout Milk" whichappearedinourOctober 1954Con 1/1,000,000 to 1/500,000 of a pound a day) or sumer s'' Resear ch Bul l et in, Consumers' Re possiblyevenlessmustberegardedaspotentially search arranged to have analyses made for the dangerous. That such a quantity7is easy to lead content of three brands of a product vari acquire is judgedby the fact that a mandoing ously known as powdered skimmilk, dry milk, light workconsumesroughly 1000gramsoffood non-fat dry milk solids. The three brands in daily, and if the leadcontent of this foodaver cluded were Farmdale, Borden's Starlac, and aged only 1part per million, the person would Instant Pet. be ingestingabout 1mg. of leadeachday from All the samples gave approximately the same content of lead, lying inthe range of 0.3 to 0.4 parts per million, which in CR's opinion would not be an objectionable amount, assuming that members of the family did not consume ab normally large quantities of the product; but it is somewhat above a tolerance which CR would consider satisfactory when a food sub stance isconsumed in fairly large quantities, or is regularly consumed by children. CR is indebted to a state Department of Health official for information regarding lead content of fluid milk, which was disclosed in connectionwithaninvestigationofleadexposure inafamilywhereleadhadbeenfoundbychemi cal tests in one of the children. Milk samples inthishomeshowedleadtotheextent of 0.2to 0.3mg. perliterofmilk. Twosamplesfromthe producers and from the dairy showed lead as highas0.3mg. and0.4mg. Othersamplesfrom the same sources showed from0 to 0.1 mg. of foodalone. (Water, dusts, and fumesinthe air, e.g., fromexhausts of automobiles using leaded gasoline, are common sources of additional lead intake; manyindustrial workerstake inconsid erableamountsofleadinthe formoffumes and dust inconnectionwiththeirwork.) It must be borne in mind also that ordinary analytical methods available tochemists cannot detect leadwithcertaintyiftheamount present isveryfarbelow1part permillion. Determina tionof smaller amountscallsforrefinedmethods of analysis available only to the relatively few analytical chemists who specialize in examina tionof foodand beverages for "micro-amounts" offoodsubstancesforcontaminatingmetals. Dr. Monier-WilliamsinhismonographLeadinFood (British Ministry of Health) says that "the presenceof leadin any particular foodmust be regardednot onlyas adanger initself, but as a contribution, more or less serious, to the total dailyintakeofleadfromall sources." lead per liter, and these with other samples *** examined indicated that the normal lead con The Farmdale brand was considerably more tent offluidmilkinthat statemightbeexpected economical inuse than theother two, as it pro tobeintherangeof0to0.1mg. perliter. This vided a quart of "reconstituted" skimmilk at amount is not negligible, but it is sufficiently about 6.3c and 7.5c (the higher figure for the lowcertainly that there would be no cause for 9.9oz. package). Theother twocost about 7.4 alarmfor persons whoconsume only limited or (iStarlac) to8.2c (Pet) per quart of reconstituted moderate amounts of milk. milk. It isgreatlytothe credit of thedistribu It is believed that lead poisoning fromwater tors of the Farmdale brand (a private brand of supply has occurred from the continued con theAmericanStoresCompany, agrocerychain) sumption of water with leadcontent of as little that they did not refrain fromusing the term as0.1mg. per liter. (Somewouldset the figure "skim milk" in connection with the product, at about 0.3, but there is reason tobelievethat and this phrase appears on the principal label. this may be rather too high.) It should be Starlac (product of the Borden Company) has borne in mind in this connection that infants the termon the bottomof the package, only, and childrenare susceptible to amounts of lead which would probably be unimportant if in whereverylikelymostultimateconsumerswould not noticeit; Pet milk(productofthePet Milk gested by adults, and, according tooneauthor Company) usedonlythe term"nonfat drymilk ity, femalesarenearlythreetimesassusceptible solids"whichmanyconsumersmight not recog to lead as males. nizetobethesameasthedry-powderequivalent Aleading authority in this field (Dr. G. W. ofskimmilk. .