Document Dd8LZJ17pVvVG4Vev2dw5q0e4

S3AIH 3H V TONOI TON 3Hii to aaonaonaan JOHN E. MONGER. M. D. DIRECTOR OF HtALTM JAMES E. BAUMAN ASSISTANT DIRECTOR State of Ohio Department of Health Columbus ADDRESS ALL O ` C1AL CORRESPONDENCE TO THE DIRECTOR OF HEALTH OFFICES: THE HAKTKAN-ONIO BUILDING LABORATORIES: OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY CAMPUS SUBJECT: February 24, 1925. Hr. R. R. Sayers, Chief Surgeon, U .S .B . of M . , U .S . Public Health Service, Washing ton, B .C . My dear Hr. Sayers: needs some reply. the 17th. I find that your letter of i^eb. 13th I also wish to acknowledge yours of I have been out of the city some of the time. I question whether a review or editorial for thoj^perican Medical Association would be accepted by any^han from their regular reviewers and editorial w riters. I am quite sure that my old Professor, Hr. H . Gideon Wells, Head of the Bept. of Pathology, Univ. of Chicago, writes the material along this line for the editorials in the American Medical Journal. Would it not be well to send him a copy of the Bureau's report with that suggestion. As you know I prepared an editorial for the American Journal of Public Health. Also Hr. J . H. Shrader of Baltimore has prepared a very good paper upon the subject. Some of the material in my proposed editorial was, on agreement, transferred directly to his paper. Both w i l l be out in the next issue of the American Journal of Public Health. I have jus t r eceiv ed intelligence from tie Workers' Health Bureau stating that Hr. Yandell Henderson considered their analysis "very go o d ". I have a copy of his comments in which he states that the main point in which the report is defective is that the experiments which the report describes do not apply to real conditions. The animals under test were kept in an atmosphere containing exhaust gas and dust only up to 4 parts of oarbon monoxide in 1 0 ,0 0 0 , whereas the atmosphere of public garages at least is often contaminated to a fa r greater extent. Therefore garage workers w ill be exposedSeveral times as much lead dust as were the animals reported in the experiments. Hr. Henderson also states S3AIHDHY TtfNOIiVN a m j,v aaonaoadaa -2- that he learns on good authority some additional substance may be added to ethyl gas so as to enable a ll of the lead to be b lown out of the exhaust instead "ofcaking in the muffler as happens a t p resent". ." I t is not necessary to question the accuracy of the chemical analyses carried out by the experimenters at the Bureau of Mines Station. Even if these analyses are absolutely correct, the experiments are so pporly planned that they do not apply to the actual problem. In a garage dust accumulates from week to week and month to month. In the experimental chamber at Pittsburgh, on the contrary, the volume of air blown through was so much that no accumulation of dust could occur. In the experiments as carried out the animals were placed in a room through which exhaust gas diluted with a large volume of a ir was passed. It would have been a nearer approach to real conditions i f the exhaust gas had been blown through the chamber for several weeks without putting animals into the chamber. Then when an amount of dust had collected corresponding to that which occurs in a garage the exhaust could have been shut o f f . The animals could then have been made to live in this dusty room for a few weeks. An experiment of that sort would have approximated real conditions in a g a ra g e." Dr. Henderson also takes exception to a hazard from lead *0 workers in repair shops and garages which is as great as that now existing for painters in their profession. He states that "fcu are fre e to use these statements either publicly or for transmission to the Hew York Health Council, if you think they w i l l be of u se." A letter which the Workers' Health Bureai . feceived from Dr. Alice Hamilton states that she wonders whether the Bureau had not better wait un til they have something more to go on than they have just now. She advises them to see Dr. Emerson and to hear from Dr. Henderson before making any further steps. It appears to me that the main issues have been overlooked by most of these c r it ic s . I f we w ill lo o k b a c k into the history o f the question we w il l f i n d , I think, that the problems to be taken up f e l l about in the following order: 1. What became of the lead which was put into the motor? 2 . Was the public health endangered? S3AIHDHV TtfNOIiVN aiu xv aaonaoaaaH 3 3 . I f so , methods o f regulating and controlling the danger would have to he worked out. 4 . So far as animal experiments went, it. was f ir s t necessary to determine whether any of them were poisoned by lead and thereafter perhaps to determine the various pecularities of the poison which the various animals showed. Obviously our experiments have shorn this is all a negative question, thus far at least. 5 . The danger to the semi-public, that i s , garage workers, e t c . , was the next problem to be determined and has not yet been worked out. Apparently our critio s have dropped the matter of danger to public health. Please do not c a ll a meeting for Thursday, March 5 t h . I can make the following week (Thursday), or any subsequent time very conveniently. Tuesday or S&iurday I s also convenient f or me but I understand not so much so for some of the others. Yours veiy sincerely, E . R. Hayhurst, M. D 72-29