Document 6RGyjL27K6YOMabYrMgbqQEZ1

< W ASH IN GTON 55 Shattuck St. Boston 15, Mass. July 12, 1943 Dr. R. A. Kehoe Kettering Laboratory University of Cincinnati College of Medicine Eden Avenud Cincinnati, Ohio Dear Bob: On receipt of your of July 8 I phoned Dr. Shaffer who con firmed what you said. Mr. Willis has put the matter up to Dr. Shoudy, head physician for Bethlehem, and I expect to meet Shoudy in Philadelphia on the 21st, I don't altogether blame Mr. Willis for his attitude. You have no idea of the union pressure on all our yards on just such items. In any event, I certainly want to handle the matter the way Mr. Willis feels it should be handled. We will write you again shortly. Philip Drinker Chief Health Consultant V ^r M July 8 , 1943 (19) c0 Mr. Philip Drinker, United States Maritime Commission# 55 Shattuck Street# Boston 15# Massachusetts. Pear Phil* Thanks very much for the report concerning the difficulties associated irith exposure to paint. This is a very interesting situation# and I do not understand just Yhfct occurred. H oy* ever# I may he able to find out. The material in question vas supplied by Barrett. As you are avare, Ye have been vorklng on a problem of theirs and I may be able to run this matter down. I am returning the report to you herevith. Sincerely yours, RAK ef Enc ftobert Al' Rehoe# M. D . * July 8, 19^5 (19) Mr. Philip Drinker, Chief Health Consultant, United States Maritime Commission, 55 Shattuck Street, " * Boston 15# Massachusetts* .' Dear Phllt ; I have been a little slow in writing to you about the poten tial hazards of the shipbuilding operations,which I had the pleasure of looking into with you the week before last* I finished the day with Dr. Schaefer and saw the launching of the ship, some time after having a talk with M r . Willis. Concerning the latter, you may have heard that we did not do so well. Whether I got off on the wrong foot in the first part of our talk, or whether Mr. Willis* rather obvious bad humor created the difficulties, I am not quite sure, but in any case, Mr. Willis was quite unconvinced of the desirability of making their shipyard a "guinea pig" for the purpose of finding out what the Maritime Commission wanted to know. I trust that by this time Dr. Schaefer shall have ironed out the difficulties, and that it may be possible to go ahead with the observations. I have no hesitation in telling you that in my opinion, the conditions with respect to lead exposure are quite hazardous. But for the relatively short period of exposure, and for the intermittency of the work, I am quite sure that cases of poisoning would have been seen by thi3 time. In any case, I cannot imagine this work continuing in this manner without its bringing about the proper combination for the production of lead poisoning in a certain number of cases. As to the number and the severity of such cases, I would not like to hazard a guess, but that such cases will occur seems quite certain to me. I tried to explain this to Mr. Willis, but he took a point of view that we would create trouble where perhaps it might not occur otherwise. I do Mr. Willis the kindness of attributing his attitude to a state of irritation that had resulted either from the hot day or from difficulties in the Yard just before he came in to talk with u s . Otherwise I should say that this is June 16, 1943 Mr. Philip Drinker, Harvard School of Public Health, 55 Shattuck Street, Boston, Massachusetts. Dear Phil* I shall be glad to meet you at the Hotel Belvedere In Baltlmore, early Jn the morning of June 26. 1 shall'be coming from Wilmington, and I am not just sure at the .moment of the hour of my arrival. However, I should like to s',do what, is to be done before noon if possible, or in a n y case before 5*25 P.M. so as to be able to catch the National Limited to Cincinnati at that hour. If this is satisfactory from your point of view, you need not reply. Hovever, if it is not satisfactory or if you should have to change this appointment, please let me know as early as possible, since as you knov, railroad reservations are a little bit difficult in these days. My present plan is to be in Wilmington on the 2*fth and 25th. If you should want to reach me there on either of those days, you will be able to do so either at the du Pont Hotel or at Dr. Gehrman*s office. You doubtless knov G* H . Gehrman, who is the medical director of E I . du Pont de Nemours and Com pany. Sincerely yours, Robert A. tfehoe, ri. t June 12, 194? Mr. Philip Drinker# Harvard School of Public Health# 55 Shattuck Street# Boston# Massachusetts. Dear Phili I am not sure Vhether you vere to write to me or I you in relation to a visit to the Shipyards. However, if something ; has come up in the mean time whereby there is no point in doing what you suggested, it will certainly not hurt anything for me to tell you When I can be in the east If you do not need me# all you need to do is let me know, for although I shall be happy to be of any help# I shall be equally pleased to be released if it is unnecessary. r . it I ought to go to Wilmington# Delaware on either the third or fourth week in June. This would be a good time for me to visit Baltimore. Accordingly I suggest meeting you on either Thursday or Saturday of next week# that is, June 17 or 19# or on Wednesday or Saturday of the following week. I suggest either of these days of the week for the reason that I can see you either before or after visiting Wilmington. In any case I should have a day and a half or two days at Wilmington. If you want me to come# you need only wire as to a date and place to meet. Perhaps in view of the shortness in time# I might also refer to Wednesday or Saturday, June 30 and July 3 . Any one of these weeks will be satisfactory. Sincerely yours# Robert A. JKenoe# M. D B A R O N LO NG. PtiiOEJiT C H A R L E S . BAAO. M anain O iRCCTOK ED W A RD S.VBERNARO. Ma n a OK* CABLE " LO*ANOILT" l-O* A N O t U U Dear Bobj We would like to have the HO,, part but not the CC and HHg. Is that possible or dos3 it wean too much work for Cholak. It is up to you, I think it is worth publishing and it assumes importance because of the considerable number of law suits now coming up on welding. The final paper certainly should take more account of other literature than is done in this report. There i3 nothing new in the method but the technic is different and I am sure you can justify the differences. If you don't want to do the work necessary I do not blame you in the least but if you decide not to publish it I would like 6 copies of this for the use of our field men all of whom are Navy officers. Pages 2-5 need little or no change but there should be an introduction in place of the present page 1. Omit D & C, page 6 and modify D. Modify A, page 7 & 8. Pages 9-15 modify slightly so that '-oferences come at the end instead of in the body of the text. Omit the last of 15 & ff. The tables and figures will be all right. I an afraid this will have to be ro-typed. I regret to advise that the welding law suit business is on the up. I vdll certainly get in it whether 1 will or nay. Don't do anything about those Pb urinalyses untili I see you at Rochester. The Lord has been with us so far but I see no reason at all to believe our luck will continue indefinitely. Regards Associated hotel--U. S. Grant --San Diego, California ; May 3, 1943 1 'l ' * I it * * * Mr. Philip Drinker# i; , - Los Angeles# California. (To he delivered by D r . R . T . Johnstone) ' Dear P*---hil* ** ^ irrv *0" * 1 * ' I am sending yon herewith the mimeographed copy of Cholak*s report about which ve talked last Friday. X seem to remember that it is necessary to supply your printer with a typewritten manuscript, but before retyping this I think it will save trouble all the way round if you will look it over, making any notations and giving any suggestions you may have for the modifications that seem satisfactory to you. If then you will return the report to me, we shall revamp it as you wish and forward it to you. If it is satisfactory in its present form, I shall have nothing more to say, but this hardly seems likely. - With respect to the matter of analyses which ve briefly dis cussed# I have just talked with Cholak about what we can do to be of some help to you. In order that there will be no undue delay on our part, I am ordering additional containers and needles. We shall need the needles in any case before ve are out of this trouble# and despite the additional invest ment of about $150.00# I am going to have them on hand. We could just about double our analytical facilities by extending or adding to one or tvo of our chemical hoods and by training one or two additional people to help us at crucial points. If you are quite serious about wanting the analyses# ve perhaps ought to get ready so that we shall not have to upset other necessary work when you come to us with this. Consequently,' I would appreciate it very much If you could give us some idea of what If anything you will require of u s . If ve are given a little advance notice, we could come through with any reason able amount of assistance. There is one matter in this connection that I ought to warn you about. The collection of samples for this purpose Is a difficult job that takes careful planning and careful execution. Unless you have had experience with this, I am sure you will not realize hov great are the opportunities for contaminating samples to such an extent as to give useless and altogether mis leading results. I am quite sure that we shall be able to get satisfactory samples vlth the assistance of the doctors# but in order to do so we shall have to convince the doctors of the necessity of faultless technique. Otherwise, we shall all be vast ing our time. I am sure that very few people appreciate the seriousness of these difficulties# and therefore# I am empha sizing the point at the risk of boring you. The real difficulty