Document 70M4b84oeqgv5zK76Vy3ORjnE

y pi ,, *? >5"S & *^,3. v-' ' ^ v*aV %. *? ; 9. - V v^ -1 81 Collins Street, ;iiLBCinrj, Coi. 22-7-47o Dear John,- ' - The mai.n facts re the medical condition of the C.C.R. men'from Canberra are given h elcw# You will Imow the details of their expo sure. They worked alternately in the tanks without masks for ten minutes at a time; this was all they could stand. Their symptoms were then more of difficulty in breath]!Lng rather than of sneezing and running from the eyes, such as usually occur fr om this lead exposure. On the Sunday night they arrived down from Canberra and were given immediately large dos es of sedatives and 3.A.L. (dimercaptopropanol), otherwise British anti-Lewisitb - in doses of 4w milligrams per kilogram of body weight four hourly. One mail was obviously vory sick, the other not so had. Their early symptoms which were apparently headache and vomiting were attributing in Canberra to a gastro- intestinal infection which was epidemic there then.. As you know, I stood by to o to Sydney at once if Dr. Blackburn*s next report was unfavourable {he had n ot een the really sick man when I tallied to him at midnight on Sunday - he was s'till awaiting his arrival from Canberra), but by midday on the next day, Monday, bo h men were apparently quite fit after four doses of 3.A.L. Dr. Blackburn then reduced the dos e to half the previous dosage (i .e . 2y m g s . per Q ) and gave it only twice daily. ' On the following Friday, four days later, one man suddenly became violent, escaped from the ward and nearly from the hospital grounds and it took four men to hold him down. He also had a fit that afternoon. Dr. Blackburn, who had promised to communicate with me at once if things were not going well,rang me that night and I urged him to increase the dose of BAL to its former level of 4ij mgs. four-hourly, since I thought he had cut the dose down too soo ,. This was done to both men and-the less sick man has now been B.^-.L. for some days and really has been all right, apart from being apprehensive, from th a Monday, the first day after his admission. The other man did well but, when the dose of B.A.L. was again re duced, he tended to relapse, so these very large doses were continued for some days after this. Whek Dr. Blackburn was rung up by me last week-end, he told me O the man was quite alljright, though he was still giving him one dose of 3.A.L. per O day but intended to stop it next day. I think we can consider both of them as LO cured. -- 4 | .' . e\j o (bn one occasion the very sick man got severe abdominal pains while O on B.A.L. I do not kr|i.ow the exact significance of this but one man with ordinary lead poisoning (a battery worker) who, at n y suggestion, was given BAL at the Ui Royal Melbourne Hospital two or three dc.ys after admission with lead colic which. meantime had responded to calcium given intravenously, got a very severe relapse "" of his colic when givdn B.A.L. I thought this might bo due to the extra lead in the circulation under the influence of B.A.L. There is a more rapid excretion of other heavy metals under the influence of B.A.L. and presumably t3iis will barren N24600 D3tV, C- i ... ,,th lead. Though Dr. Blackburn does not feel he has scientific proof that B.A.L. `achieved a cure here, I feel on the story he gave me that it undoubtedly played a very big part in his cure and I think if large doses had been continued'for. tko first week to ten days he would not have relapsed at all. Dr. Blackburn feels himself that the 3.A.L. was a very important factor in this cure but he does not V feel he has scien tific proof of this. I feel sure that, whatever 3.4L may do in ordinary cases of lead poisoning, in early cases of lead encephalopathy it m i l be life saving if used in large doses for a period of, say, ten days. And this is the type of poisoning we meet with T.E.L. tfith best wishes, Yours sincerel'r, sgd. Keith D. lairley. KF 0021501