Document 32MqwydQ0omEo47Q56bN244J

March 24, 1945 Mr. J. K. Schaefer, E^hyl Corporation, Chrysler Building, Mew York City 17 . Dear John: I shall he seeing you next week, hut I hasten to comment on one paragraph in your letter of March 21, to the effect that the hazard of exposure to organic lead compounds "has been suffi ciently reduced that it does no longer remain as a significant hazard.n . I should not want you or anyone else to arrive at that conclu sion from what I have s a i d . The hazards of exposure to tetra- *ethyl lead are still greater than they should he, and the day to day risk in relation to leakage, slight operating failures and the like is a significant matter. If there should be the slightest relaxation of present precautionary measures, ve could easily he hack where we were months ago, in a short time. Pre sent precautions and present attention to maintenance h a 3 reduced the hazard to the point, where we are not in constant fear of the outbreak of acute intoxication among the personnel,. However, this is still a significant hazard and it will continue as such in- my opinion, until there are certain more or less fundamental improvements in either operating equipment or opera ting procedures. In other words, in my opinion, it takes undue skill and attention to maintain the safety of these operations. The potential risk should he reduced by some means so as to bring the hazards to a point where they will he controlled by somewhat less heroic, and therefore more readily practicable measures. . I do not wonder that you queried the last sentence of the report. What I should have referred to was the last quarter of the year 1944 in relation to the worst period of the year 194p. That is to say, our last series of results give no evidence of improve ment in the situation referred to in my voluminous report for the period of the year ending with 1945. Sincerely yours, BAK ef i'obrt"". "'noe, M J D . ETHYL CORPORATION Ma n u f a c t u r in g a n d Tr a f f i c D e p a r t m e n t Maroh 21, 1945 PLEASE ADDRESS REPLY TO CHRYSLER BUILDING 4 0 5 LEXINGTON AVE.,NEW YORK 17, N.Y. PERSONAL AND CONFIDENTIAL Dr R* A* Kehoe, M.D. College of Medicine University of Cincinnati Eden 3s Bethesda Avenues Cincinnati, Ohio Dear Bob* Thank you for your letter of March 19th in ref erence to your last trip to the Chambers Works area, I ap preciate your taking me into your confidence on this subject, and I believe that at the opportune time I -will be able to assist in corrective measures on the points you have raised* Commenting somewhat in detail on your memoran dum, I submit the following* I would conclude that the Chambers Works* organic lead hazard has been sufficiently reduced and that it does no longer remain as a significant hazard* On the other hand, the dust problem, in organic lead, remains acute* Perhaps in this respect, we may be able to do something through our own chan nels at Deepwater to quietly ascertain how the Industrial En gineering Departments plans for dust control are progressing* I think I can have something on this shortly. Certainly the Industrial Engineering Department might spend more profitable time on such a problem and defer other so-called MXs (Experi mental Projects), such as Automatic Caster Control, Magnetic Operation of Angle Valves, Cyclone Separators, etc* Also through our own channels, I have put pressure on improvement; in the bulk storage area in which we share ~ operating responsibility, and I am sure this part of the pro gram will receive special attention as far as our own direot efforts are concerned* We can also assist in improving the dust situation in the blender On my trip to Baton Rouge the first part of April when I am with Mr* Stecher, I can probably work in the other matters, feeling that this occasion would be the opportune time* Dr. R* A Kehoe, M,D. 2 March 21, 1945 In general, it is my own opinion, and may I say my own observation, that some of the poor practices at Chambers Works have been the result tk supervision, I think you now know that both Messrs* Heuser and Duke are no longer the re sponsible operating supervision and Dr* Plunkett and Mr* Hodges have taken their place. I think;, therefore, the super vision has a chance of being improved as the latter two men, in ray opinion, are superior supervision. Quite frankly for your own confidential information, I brought this matter of supervision up to the very top Orchem Management at the time we discussed the whole hygenip situation, which was during the time cases of sickness were prevalent, I have a feeling that the change in top supervision will bolster and inspire the whole supervisory group, and we can reasonably anticipate im provement * H t h respect to the glove situation, here again we seem to get involved in red tape* Dr, Calingaert has worked out, in my opinion, some very good gloves for special applica tions, but there has been too much time consumed in Chambers Works* tests to give approval for the use of these gloves in the area. Nevertheless, I will use my best efforts to improve the situation, ^ You may expect to hear from me further on this matter as soon as I have more opportunity to do something about it* With reference to Page 5 of your report, the last sentence on the page, is not clear to me. Do you mean the last quarter of 1944 instead of 1945 comparable to the whole period of 1944? ' Very truly yours, 3-5 '\ KB 0001092