Document X7em0nrQXrbkk3O6XexejX7mw

June 6, 1968 Mr. Michael M. Taylor Department of Chemistry Kansas State College of Pittsburg Pittsburg, Kansas 66762 i ' Dear Mr. Taylor: I fear that the published work on lead done in this Laboratory in recent years will be of little help to you in your concern for information as to the immediate toxicity of the inorganic salts of lead for experimental animals. We have had little interest in this aspect of the lead problem, except in making brief, approximate and preliminary observations. Rather, in view of the occupational and public hazards associated with lead, the bulk of the work has involved the absorption, excretion and retention of swallowed or inhaled lead under conditions simulating those of industry on the one hand, or of the daily ingestion of lead in food and beverages by the general population on the other. The subjects of such observation have been men working in industry, or persons living normally in the general populations, or healthy young adults under observation in the Laboratory. I am sure that you can find specific data in the immediate toxicity of lead chloride (and other lead salts) by going to toxicological literature of this type. I have no reprints of any of the publications of preliminary observations of this type. I am sending certain reprints relating to the information to which you referred in your letter. The Symposium gave only the briefest information on "Metabolism of Lead under Abnormal Conditions" since much fuller information had been published elsewhere, as indicated by the references. Even so, it seems to me that you should have appreciated the fact that young healthy men were the subjects of these observations. In such work as this, relating to human behavior, the quantitative relationship cannot be obtained from experiments or laboratory animals. Sincerely yours, RAKtwp Robert A. Kehoe, M.D. Professor Emeritus of Occupational Medicine