Document O1XYGVbRZGyB6RkYBwynr89qj

CLINTON H. CRANE, PRESIDENT F. H. BROWNELL, v ic e PRESIDENT F. W. ROCKWELL. VICE PRESIDENT FELIX EDGAR WORMSER, SECRETARY ANO TREASURER May 21, 1940 Dr. Robert; A. Kehoe University of Cincinnati Cincinnati, Oiiio Dear Dr. kehoe: n few weeks ago I received a letter from Mr. '..hiting. Vice President of the Liberty Mutual Insurance Company, .boston, copy of which is attached. Yesterday I had the opportunity of lunching with Mr. Whiting and Dr. Aub and we discussed the subject he brings up. Dr. Aub was kind enough to tell me that you contemplated having a meeting of a group of doctors to revise the booklet on lead poisoning prepared some years ago by the American Public health Association. It may oe that some of the tilings you have in mind with your group will have a direct bearing on Mr. Whiting's sug gestion to us. Therefore, I am writing to inquire if you nave any recommendations with reference to Mr. whiting's suggestion that might be mutually helpful. Dr. Aub told me that you probably will be in Lew York some time in June ana if so perhaps we can meet here to discuss the subject. If so, I shall be more than pleased to make my arrangements conform to yours if it is at ail possible. With kindest regards. COPY Liberty Mutual Insurance Company Secretary, Lead Industries Association, 420 Lexington Avenue, New York, IT. Y. 175 Berkeley Street Boston, Mass. April 3, 1940 Re; Treatment of Lead Poisoning Dear Ur. Secretary: I hope you will be v:illing to give consideration to a proposal upon the above sub ject for the reason that, broadly speaking, liability insurance companies leave no interest in the many large industrial processes using lead compounds than to assist their policyholders in the minimization of the lead poisoning hazard. As you al ready know, there has been very substantial progress during the past twenty-five or thirty years in the minimization of the degree of exposure to lead absorption it self produced by various types of what we call "engineering revision" of the loadusing processes themselves. However, there are still occurring enough genuine cases of industrial lead poisoning to give the problem of lead poisoning a continuing economic importance. The efficiencjr of the medical treatment of individual lead poisoning cases is ev idently an important factor in this situation. For the industrial plants of sxich size that a competent lead toxicologist can diroct the medical treatment, excellent results are being obtained in reducing tho total days of disability almost to tho vanishing point. In contrast, whoro the average practicing physician handles tho lead poisoning case, the treatment or ovon the genuine diagnosis of the lead poison ing is often handled inofficiontly. Tho basic research on load poisoning that was sponsored by your Association (or tho National Load Institute?) and conductod at Harvard University by Dr. Joseph C. Aub, ot. al., has proven of very practical value in tho efficient handling of acute lead poisoning, as I have noted in ropcatod specific instances. Since the publication of the Harvard lead poisoning research in 1926, many addition al studies on the subject have been made by members of the medical profession and have been published in medical literature. These have included proposed methods of diagnosis of incipient lead poisoning, statistics of the frequency of poisoning 0009100 N9915.01 2- Secretary, Lead Industries Association April 3, 1940. cases in particular processes and medical treatment of active cases. Attempts have also been made in particular cases to apply medical prophylaxis against lead poison ing under a given concentration of exposure (presumably only slight exposure) of which I might mention offhand (l) the daily ingestion of ammonium chloride and (2) administration of certain vitamins. In this present-day situation my feeling as a layman is that the workers in lead industries who become somewhat poisoned therefrom would be substantially benefitted if all of the physicians who treated their cases could have available for consul tation an authoritative and concise statement of the present medical consensus of opinion on load poisoning treatment. I refer, of course, not to the lead toxicol ogists but to the average physician who necessarily handles so many of the cases of this type in the numerous small plants that have some form of handling lead or its compounds, With the ever-increasing knowledge every physician needs for the treat ment of his patients, I suspect that many of them are not at present familiar with what your Harvard lead research demonstrated in the relation of calcium metabolism and lead poisoning, yet such knowledge may bo vital, I have been told, in the treat ment of extremely acute lead poisoning. Of practical value also may be some of the other more recent medical developments in this field, y specific proposal for your consideration is the sponsorship by your Association of a brochure on Ilodical Treatment of Load Poisoning prepared jointly by several outstanding lead toxicologists of your own selection. Once this pamphlet were published, efficient distribution thereof could be made through purchase by the liability insurance companies, member companies of your Association and in other manner that might suggest itself to you. Insurance companies as such cannot appropriately sponsor such a medical practice undertaking since it does not lie within the scope of our business. If you prefer not to sponsor the undertaking yourselves, would you care to consider the possibil ity of arranging for sponsorship through the Council on Industrial Health of the American Lfedical Association? Very truly yours. (signed) S. E. Whiting, Vice-President & Consulting Engineer, K 000920 i