Document 997GwE3b51NyOR4oyE0deK8B6

REPRODUCED AT THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES Reprint from N. Y. Vorld, May 23, 1925. LEADED GASOLINE 1,000 parts of ordinary gasoline) we put them in. They showed no signs shows that it can be absorbed under of any bad effect from gasoline. ordinary conditions around garages." " We decided to use that as a criter Dr. Flinn explained first that the ion, so we then exposed these animals utmost care was taken with guinea to the vapor of gasoline in this air pigs, rabbits, rats, goats, pigeons and chamber, containing approximately, monkeys used in experiments so as to as far as we can determine, about 300 make sure they were exposed only to milligrams of lead per cubic foot. the same conditions any ordinary gar Strange to say, and rather to our sur age man might meet if he handled the prise, we found the rats rather sus doped fuel. ceptible to lead poisoning. After telling of some of the prelimi "I do not quite understand it. W e nary arrangements for the experi exposed only two dozen rats and each EXPERT REVEAL ments the text of Dr. l'linn's intro one died. W e exposed them anywhere ductory to the report continued. from fifty-six hours to over two hun "We dosed our rabbits with 3.cc of dred and twenty hours, and each time the diluted gasoline daily over various we analyzed we found lead in them. D etails of the Columbia T ests periods. Animals, rabbits, died, but we " Our experience leads us to believe were unable to find out whether they that if a man is exposed to the same died of lead poisoning or not until to exposure that the animals had, he can Show D eath and Paralysis ward the very end of some of our not help absorb lead. Whether the Invariably R esu lt From lung exposures. Some animals were symptoms become marked enough for Doses Given Animals; Even Rats Stricken exposed from 189 to 190 days. the average scientific man to recognize " Those exposed for the longer period the symptoms is a question. have shown definite signs of lead pois " For fear that we might have made oning. W e have had one rabbit ab a mistake somewhere in our lead solutely paralyzed in the hind quarters chamber, and so forth, just a couple of M E R E H A N D L IN G O F F U E L !1-- could not move at all. That animal, weeks ago we took an iron pan, about D IL U T IO N IS P O IS O N O U S |on being analyzed, showed stipplings thirty inches in diameter, and with a very plainly. W e analyzed that rabbit false bottom made of one-half inch and found it contained about 4.9 milo- mesh on the bottom, and in that iron Article in The W orld Verified grams of lead. pan we put a litre and a half of gaso T hat U n iversity W orkers " We then turned to goats for the line, and on the top of the false bottom simple reason they are more hardy and we placed white rats, leaving the ani Becam e V ictim s not so susceptible to respiratory dis mals exposed to just the natural eva From The W orld's Bureau Special Despatch to The W orld eases as rabbits. We treated these poration of the gasoline. goats on the neck and on the other parts of the body with two centigrams Evaporation Tested W A S H IN G T O N , May 22.-- Details of the diluted ethvl gasoline. We had "The litre and a half evaporated of Columbia University experiments, four of those goats abraded. practically all inside of twenty-four which led authorities there to conclude "W e analyzed the fetus of those hours and the animals were exposed that tctractnyl-leadcd gasoline is a goats and found lead. We have one twenty-four hours, except for two menace to any one handling it, became goat now that we are still treating hours we took them out in order to known to-night, although the text of winch is very weak in its hind quar give them a chance to get water and the report of Dr. Frederick B. F'linn, ters. Another goat shows a tendency food, and it also gives us a chance to who conducted the experiments, still is of weakness in its left hind leg. a secret so far as complete publication is concerned. Fuels Compared wash out the bottom of the pan so no dust from the evaporated material, or any concentrated lead, shall cause an Officials at the Public Health Serv " In order to sec whether there was addition to the gasoline. ice let it be known that the reason for a tendency between the dilute gasoline " The rats did not die. W e killed this secrecy is that the report is so and the straight gasoline we took two the two on purpose to determine the damning to leaded gasoline that Dr. ol our goats and ordered distribution lead contents of the rats after seven Flinn is going ahead with additional ex of the lead in the animal itself. days' exposure. A t the end of seven periments intended to check every con clusion he has reached. For that reason lie does not wish to make public any of his statistical data yet. It is denied by all concerned that any pressure is being exerted by any one to keep the report a permanent secret. "W e have taken two goats and put one cubic centimetre of the straight tetraethyl lead in the neck of those goats. We have dosed these animals for over sixty days at various times and the animals became hunched up and refused to eat, &c., and we feared days we found that the rats contained the average four milligrams of lead, the rats weighing on the aver age fifteen grams, showing that lead can be accumulated by the ordinary, natural evaporation of gasoline." High Spots Cited they were going to die, so we stopped Autopsy Indicates DeathThe World, however, is able to Due From Lead Poisoningpresent the text of Dr. Flinn's intro duction to his report, presented W ed nesday to the conference of scientists called by Surgeon General Cumming. The high spots are: That with a few minor exceptions, only the lead diluted gasoline was used in the tests-- the solution that goes to the public and not the raw tetra ethyl lead itself. That animals given treatment of small quantities of the fuel-- 10 cubic centimetres, or same amount that would remain on a garage man's hands if he used the gasoline to wipe off grease-- died in many cases be came paralyzed in others, and in variably were found through analy sis to have absorbed lead. This amounts to poisoning. That of two dozen rats so treated, Garage Conditionsall died, although rats are not usual ly susceptible to lead. That there is no doubt that the mere handling of the diluted fuel would cause lead ab sorption. the dosage and let them rest for a few days. The animals recovered in a few days. That is the same thing that you see around industrial plants when a man is taken away from industrial exposure. "About two weeks ago one of these goats became suddenly paralyzed in its hindquarters, cried all day long and passed out. We and found lead in ethxaemoirngeadns,th3is/4 goat MM. in the brain, the total brain weighing about 25 gram s; we found lead in the bones and we found about .8 of 100 grams in the muscles, showing that lead was pretty well distributed throughout the whole animal. " As to the other goat, we have stopped the lead for the time being to see if it will recover, and it has shown signs of coming out of the lead intoxication in two weeks. " Passing on to the gas chamber, we were uncertain exactly how to approach that question. W e tried various eva poration tests of various materials, Chemical examinations of parts of the viscera of Anatosc Levanus, said to have been a laborer at the Bayonne docks of the Standard Oil Company, indicated yesterday that he had died from lead poisoning, according to Dr. Alexander O. Gettler, city toxicologist at Bellevue Hospital. Other parts of the viscera are still under examination. " We don't know whether he absorbed this lead through tetraethyl or not," Dr. Charles Norris, Chief Medical Examiner, reported last night. "Thus far we have found no evidence of vol atile lead, prevalent in cases of tetra ethyl poisoning, and therefore we can't say whether the lead found in this man's kidney and spleen was derived through working with tetraethyl." Levanus, who was thirty-eight and lived at No. 67 Cherry Street, was taken to Reconstruction Hospital at No. 395 Central Park West, April 22 last, and) complained of straining of the back! Examination revealed no World Story Proved powders &c. We threw gasoline such strain, and moroseness and ina In this connection Dr. Flinn again in effect verified the article printed in The W orld some time ago that he and his assistant, Miss Agnes Starkson, had accumulated lead during the ex periments, though working under the most careful conditions. Dr. Flinn described their symptoms as some of those usually found in lead poisoning. Dr. Horatio Williams, head of the Department of Physiology at Colum bia University at that time, denied The World article as " utterly false." I lis contention was that accumulation of lead was not necessarily lead poisoning, though it is conceded that lead poisoning is simply the stage around like you would have it around a garage, where it would not be ab sorbed through wooden floors, and we found that the rate of evaporation varied according to the temperature, the air movement and as to how the gasoline spreads itself over the surface. " However, we did find that we could evaporate about 400 cc. ou the average, inside of about four hours, of gasoline W/e used that as a criterion and ex posed animals four hours in the gas chamber. The gas chamber contains approximately 120 cubic feet of air, and the air is charged about six times an hour. As far as we could deter mine, both by analyzing the air and by analyzing the fumes afterward, this bility to make himself understood elicited little information for the hos pital authorities. May 5 he became insane and was removed to the psy chopathic ward at Bellevue, where he died May 14. Since that time Dr. Gettler has been conducting a chemi cal examination of his viscera. " Dr. Gettler is not sure how much lead is present," Dr. Norris said last night. " Absorption of lead is an oc cupational disease. Great quantities in dicate that the men have been subjected to constant absorption. The bones absorb more than any other part of the body, and so far Dr. Gettler has not examined them." where the accumulation has become would contain about .03 of lead per Dr. Norris said that detection of great enough to bring serious results. cubic foot. tetraethyl lead itself is only shown in " There is one interesting factor," "We evaporated our easolinc bv oas- the autopsy in cases where the sub-