Document 3JvV6D9QVoQ3Ebk2Q619j1Rgn

THEASSOCIATED ETHYL COMPANY LIMITED MEDICAL SERVICES ELLESMERE PORT, CHESHIRE Hea d Of f ic e : 20 BERKELEYSQUARE, LONDON,W. I t e l e p h o n e : ELLESMERE PORT 3611 TELEX No: 6238-4 t e l e g r a m s : OCTEL, ELLESMERE PORT, TELEX CABLES' OCTEL, ELLESMERE PORT Dr . P. S. I.B A R R Y ChiefMedical Officer Dear Dr. Kehoe, O UR REF. Y OUR REF. 15th December, i960. Many thanks for your letter of December 9th in reply to mine of November 9th and 21st. I fully appreciate your reasons for our not making reproductions of your report on TetraMethyl Lead, and since you will be able to supply us with copies of the report issued from The Kettering Laboratory when we make request to you, there will, of course, be no need for us to run off our own copies. Dr. Barnes, the Director of the M.R.C. Laboratories at Carshalton, has informed me that a joint report on the comparative studies that they have been doing with TetraEthyl Lead and TetraMethyl Lead will be published in the British Journal of Industrial Medicine and I shall arrange to have a. copy of this forwarded to you when it becomes available. I have just returned from a two-week visit to India occasioned by a spill of T.E.L. compound in an Indian vessel which was brought to our notice on its arrival at Bombay. Just under four thousand pounds of compound was lost and one of the holds of the vessel, including the*cargo in this hold, was fairly heavily contaminated. I was asked to go to Bombay in a hurry as it was reported that a number of the crew of the vessel were suffering from T.E.L. poisoning. After examining the crew, however, I was satisfied that none of them had been poisoned despite some who presented with some of the early symptoms, such as insomnia, poor appetite, loss of weight and weakness, none of these symptoms being supported by any positive signs. I obtained a number of urine samples from those whom I judged to have been most exposed and despatched these to England for analysis. The- results, which I received by cable about three days later, were all within normal limits and confirmed my view that the symptoms described had been implanted in the minds of the men by some other agency whose main objective had been one of compensation. I left Calcutta, on December 12th where the vessel is now berthed and the cargo in process of removal under the supervision of two of our safety experts, the stevedores employed being supplied with safety equipment. (continued) ;>r< ft - 2I hope that you and Mrs. Kehoe will have a very happy Christmas in Florida and that you will escape the appalling weather, of which we have had reports from New York, and which, I may say, is little better in this country. With kindest regards to you and Mrs. Kehoe, Sincerely yours, UAA*--] (P.S.I. Barry) / Dr.R.A. Kehoe, The Kettering Laboratory, College of Medicine, Eden Avenue, Cincinnati, 19, Ohio. PSIB/pby RE" 0013365