Document NGLmLN5Bb7Vaj8KokbD9ew3zR

To: Mr. Ziegfeld From: Manfred Bowditch Subject: 1952 ACTIVITIES December 16, 1952 The following is a brief outline of Health and Safety activities during the first eleven months of 1952. A more comprehensive report will be made' to the members of our Association when records for the full year are available. CHILDHOOD LEAD POISONING This problem continues to be a major "headache" and a source of much adverse publicity, of which the Baltimore publications herewith are but two examples. No accurate estimate of its prevalence is possible, but these figures on 1952 reports from a few com munities with which we are in touch will serve to point up its importance. All Cases Fatal Cases Atlanta Baltimore Boston Cincinnati Cleveland New Castle, Pa. New York St. Louis Washington miscellaneous 3 26 5 12 16 15 hh 61 11 197 0 h 1 h 5 3 1U h h l uo Most of the above figures are incomplete; this is particularly true of those for New York City, which are based on estimates by the Assistant Health Commis sioner, Mr. Trichter, whose present illness has delayed the further report promised. Detailed investigation of any such large number of cases to deter mine their validity would be prohibitively expensive and time consuming, as witness the costs of the current Baltimore ($10,000 for one year) and Boston ($2,500 to $3j000 per year) studies. But granting that many could be shown to be of doubtful validity, this would not lessen the adverse publicity, and'it is my considered opinion that we must find means of securing more accurate diag nosis of lead poisoning or face the likelihood of widespread governmental prohibition of the use of lead paints on dwellings. INDUSTRIAL LEAD POISONING Due to widespread lack of knowledge in the medical profession of the causes and diagnosis of lead poison ing, as well as the fact that it is not a reportable disease and the factor of deliberate -"covering up,u no useful estimate of its prevalence in the adult population is possible. Although its incidence in the painting trade has un doubtedly lessened substantially in the last several decades, Dr. Robert A. Kehoe, Director of the Kettering Laboratory and an internationally recognized authority on this subject, gave the opinion in an address on November 19, 1952 at the annual meeting of the Industrial Hygiene I'oundation, of which Mr. Fletcher is the Chairman, that plumbism is as common in industry today as it wras in much earlier times.