Document 3ejGqxdRZnka4DDxK9bm4dBLJ

October 19, I960 Mem o to: D r s. D av is M ille r Keh oe Su b ject: Lead exp er im en t fo r th e G en eral E le c t r ic Com pan y Fr o m : T. Sterlin g 1. Not m en tion ed in D r . Keh o e's Letter bu t d efin it ely im p lie d is th e expectation th at lead absorption from the p lastic w ill be tr iv ial. I state th is exp licitly as the h ypoth esis un der in vestigation b ecau se a sm a ll ab so r p tio n of le ad cou ld n ot b e d etected w ith out a len gth y experim en t. T h erefore the experim en t w ill h ave as it s pu rpose to determ in e w h eth er or not the su b ject ab so r b s an ap p r e ciab le am oun t of lead . An ap p r e ciab le am oun t w ill be defin ed a s one th at can be detected in in cr e ase d u r in ar y excr etion aft e r a five day p eriod of in tak e. 2. A n u m b e r o f c o n t r o l fe a t u i*e s w ill h av e t o b e b u ilt in t o th e e x p e r i'.m e at . Th e f i r s t p r o b le m is th at th e su b je c t s food in t ak e ..m ay be affected by the in clu sion of the p last ic. The secon d problem is posed by the extrem e d aily v ar iab ility of lead excr etion . 3. T o ob t ain c o m p a r a b le m e a su r eg of food in t ak e an d e xc r e t io n the follow in g even ts sh ou ld be in itiated : a . Th e su b je ct w ill st a r t on a p ar t ic u lar food item fo r lun ch a s soon a s fe a sib le . Th is food item co aid be a sou p or m ash ed ; p otatoes or an y oth er item w h ich can be u sed even tu ally lo r the in take of the p lastic m ate r ial. b . Th e su b ject w ill be given a p lastic not con tain in g lead fo r a t le ast five days proceedin g the actu al experim en t. c . Th e su b ject w ill be fed one d o se of p lastic con tain in g lead an d w ill be fed u n leaded p last ic fo r th e follow in g five d ay s. d . Th e su b je c t w ill b e fe d le a d e d p la st ic fo r fiv e d a y s T h is w ill =v be follow ed by u n leaded p last ic fo r five d ay s. /<*- 0 0 0 3 S4 2 3. Dr. Davis h as assu r ed me that unleaded plastic can be obtained. If the su bjects food in take sh ould be affected in any way by the plastic m aterial the r esu lt s of the study cannot be of value un less the su bjects food intake h as been stabilized fir st . 4. Becau se of time lag in excretion and Our experien ce on th is type of an alysis a sin gle feeding experien ce may be in con clusive. How ever we do know that constant intake of a daily in crem en t of lead fed by mouth ean be detected in the urin e within five days as long as th is in crem en t is at le ast of the magnitude of 3 m illigr am s of absorbable lead. K Z 00C3S43