Document XR9oGN4YjbZbpDr9NkN5j5XVd

THE ASSOCIATED ETHYL COMPANY LIMITED NORTHWICH CHESHIRE Delephate: NORTHWICH 3241. C/tcad Office: ARTILLERY HOUSE, ARTILLERY ROW, LONDON, S.W. 1. ABBEY 39T4. K.2OUR REF. YOUR REF. deleg/nms tk Cables: ETHYLPORT, NORTHWICH. DATE 2nd November, 19^9 directors: N. A. GASS. J. B. AUG KESSLER, (NETHERLANDS) J.W. BOYLE. f\ G.C.MORRIS. R. H. PORTERS. C. V. BARRY, (U.S.A) O. A. SHEPARD, (US. A.) A-J. SINGLETON. T. L.LENZEN.fU.S.A) T. R. A. b e v an , fj*fe>nagmg/ Dr. N.A. Aehoe, Kettering Laboratory of Applied Physiology, University of Cincinnati, College of medicine, C incin.nati, r;HIC, U.a i\. ' Dear Dr. nehoe, 1 have heard that you have been very busy indeed this year and, therefore, have avoided bothering you during recent months. would like to thank you for enabling us to comply with the request of our medical consultant at the Axel Johnson Oil Refinery at i^neshamn in Uwede.n. 'The Chloromycetin which was forwarded there saved the life of the daughter of the General manager, who is consequently most grateful. Hr* P. Agren, the father of the girl, is leaking arrange ments to settle the account in dollars. It was impossible for our Accounting Department to accept this charge, which 1 believe, with your permission, is at present entered in the Lthvl Corporation's books. Attached are a number of articles and reprints which may be of interest to you. There is a list showing the lead concentrations of snap samples of urine taken from workmen* at refineries during the period I have been employed by the Company. The men concerned may not have been predominantly engaged in blending; some of them are also tank cleaners and rail car cleaners, and ail havo other jobs at the refineries. There i3 no location in this country at which actual blending is other than a very small part-time job. The results of samples from men employed in making small blends for reference fuels, for use in C.r'.ii. engines, are included. These men frequently act as supervisors of the actual blending operations. One ha3 been struck, during the past year, by the variations in the typo of protective clothing, such as rubber boots, aprons and gloves, which are in use. It is the exception rather than the rule to find white protective clothing of this type in these post-war days when there is still a shortage of supplies. It is our experience here on the lant that i.V.C. is the most satisfactory material to use. Apparently it may bo obtained in a form approaching white. The common type i3 of a reddish-brown (Con-td.) TO Dr. B.A. Kehoe. 2nd November, 1949* Da t e 2- - colour. .'.hen I was with you,you were sanguine of obtaining a a rubber impervious material. The latest information we have had from you is on Elastomer 105 Ene wonders if any further progress has been made in this field. One is certain that something better than the ordinary rubber or synthetic materials can be found for use in blending. One also feeis that none of these materials should be too durable. Nor example, one feels that a 250 hour service life for gloves is quite enough. Some of the protective clothing of this type has been in use for years and, although there is no evidence of contamination by T.B.b., one knows that there have been circumstances in which there has been contamination without visible evidence on the protective clothing. Admittedly, the contamination may not have been of any significant degree. Cne knows that for a time the contaminated material does not necessarily smell. In any case, cleansing with Kerosene disguises the odour of "Ethyl" fluid. I would appreciate your views and direction on the possibility of the use of substitutes for protective clothing which are less impervious than rubber. In this Company's manufacturing plant, at the present time, the organic lead hazard is well under control, but we have made very little real progress in the control of the inorganic side. There is still invisible dust or fume in the bead d,melting and Recovery building, the source of which we have not yet been able to determine. Admittedly, the mean lead excretion in this building is within the normal range; usually about 0.05 mg. per litre of urine, but the faecal excretion is too frequently in the region of 1.0 mg. per sample. A similar state of affairs, but to a somewhat les3 degree, exists in the Alloy Manufacturing building, and is particularly applicable to hopper fillers. We are trying out various ideas of our own and have met with a little success, and are wondering if any advances have been made on this at baton 'Rouge. The silhouettes in the hopper filling booths are not the solution. We Intend trying various types of fittings on the hopper filling boot, and local ventilation tailored to the job. We are also having trouble with moisture in the supply air lines throughout the i'lant. V.'e feel we can overcome this by the use of drying machines containing alumina gels and again wondered if you have done anything different at Baton Kouge during the past two years. Efforts were also being made at Baton Kouge to reduce, eliminate or recover the T.m.L. in the exhaust stacks of the manufacturing building. This is the sort of contamination which will have to be controlled, or at least alleviated in the Company's new plant. Has anythin^ further been done on this in the dtates? quite recently I took very serious exception to the use of medically restricted persons on hazardous work, and, to what I KE 0009.094 l Contd.) TO. Dr. H.A. ivehoe. iXvTE..2nd..Uoye;2ber7..J..9^-9" -3' considered to be excessive overtime. dome men in this xlant have recently worked as long as eighty hours per week on maintenance jobs. whilst it i3 possible to get away with this, one feels it is very bad in principle. I remember that a forty-hour week had been recommended in the T.iL.ii. area at baton x<ouge and wondered if this is still applicable. I know that a sixty- hour week is not unreasonable in our present state of control here, but anything over that time is, in my opinion, unreasonable and unwarranted. Jrrofessor Dodds is in future to come to tne xlant at fairly frequent intervals to act as Chairman at meetings of a Committee composed of members of the iianufacturing and medical Departments. this should at least permit the manufacturing side to see that recommendations made on basic principles are not entirely matters invented by me as an individual as scourges for the manufacturing* Department. with kindest personal regards to i-irs. Kehoe and yourself, Yours very sincerely, Cncl. KE 0009995