Document X7YLR8pY774nyjN1aYzw58OJy

April 24, 1945 Mr. T.. C. Koberts, Aluminum Ore Company, East St. Louis, Illinois Dear M r . Eofoerts; Your letter of April 18 vas received at the Laboratory in my absence and containers for the collection of samples of blood and urine have been forvarded to you together vith mimeographed Instructions for the collection of samples. It seems probable that these containers vill have been received befoz-e this letter arrives. H o v e v e r , as an additional precaution I am writing to call your attention to the necessity for exercising the utmost care In the avoidance of the contamination of the samples vita lead com pounds . Generally speaking, people do not recognize hov sex-ious is the risk of contamination of samples, and therefore I wish to emphasize the fact. For this reason I enclose herewith additional copies of the instructions, and I ask that you follow them vith extreme care. The quantities of lead that vill be found,,in the samples vill be very small indeed, and therefore the slightest factor of contamina tion vill increase the results many f o l d . There!'oz-e, you vill have to take every possible precaution against the Introduction of any bus t or foreign material into these samples . In our- experience it is very difficult to obtain unccntsminated samples vithin an indus trial plant. Certainly there must foe facilities for so doing that are far in excess of those generally available In industry iron the point of viev of cleanliness and freeaom from all dust- More over men who come Into the medical quartern for the purpose of having samples taken must be clean and free of all dust on their bodies and on their clothing. Therefore, In many instances It is necessary to ask the men to remove their clothing, to take a shower, ana then collect the samples In some area that ie entirely free of contamination vith plant fume and dust. All commonly deposited dusts, such as soot and fume contains lead, and the quantities thus available repx-esent a serious soux*ce of contamina- For the purpose of our records and our general Information ve would very much like tc have as complete information as possible cr: the nature of the work as veil as the work record of the men on whom samples are taken. It is especially important that ve know the length of time an individual has been employed under conditions involving potential lead exposure and that ve know the date on which the employee worked last in relation to the date of sampling. Any Information concerning the nature and severity of exposure so HE \{ l Mr. I . C. Eoberis - (2) - April 'h , 1 9 lt 5 far as this is available should he provided . In addition the clinical observations made on these individuals would be extreme ly useful to u s . As a matter of f a c t , we are not interested in doing analyses of this type for fees, and the charge ve make is based on the actual cost to us of carrying out the analyses. Our purpose rather Is that of collecting extensive information vita respect to industrial lead exposure, and therefore ve are not fulfilling cur purpose unless ve obtain all the correlative Infor mation that is possible - Obviously such Information is held con fidential from the point of viev of plant Information. At the same time ve are'very willing and, in fact, anxious to assist our colleagues in the field of Industrial hygiene by helping to demon strate hazardous exposure vixen it exists in order that it may. be kept under control. Very truly yours, .an xnc. K'f 0005313 / Aluminum On Gomjrait^ April 18, 1945 Dr. B. A. Kehoe, Director Kettering Laboratories Eden Avenue University of Cincinnati Cincinnati, Ohio Dear Dr. Kehoe: Dr. Dudley A. Irwin, Aluminum Company Medical Director, has referred us to you in the matter of lead analyses in blood and urine. ij Vie have a certain amount of lead exposure in our plant and, in the past, have been checking individuals for this exposure by counts of stippled red cells. Since this method is open to some question and since we are not equip ped to run quantitative lead analyses of this type, Dr.Irwin has passed along to us your kind offer to run a set of blood and urine analyses. It is our understanding that you prefer to supply the sample bottles and instructions for obtaining the speci mens; further that there is a charge of ten dollars (310.00) per man involved. If the above is correct, we would like to have seven (7) men in our plant checked fo r lead exposure; will you therefore kindly send the necessary equipment and instructions for these examinations and we will enter a purchase order to cover the cost of same. Thanking you again for your kind offer, we remain Very truly yours, ALUlvUKuI.i ORE COMPANY /_ / R. C. Roberts R C R :AK CCt Mr. D. H. Tilson - Works Manager Dr. D. A. Irwin - Aluminum Company Medical Director