Document YjezqB0Y8zwdkDVzN6VyeDjon

Ba l t imor e Cit y Ho spit a l s Fr eder ic G,, Hubba r d dir ec t or 4940 EASTERN AVENUE BALTIMORE, MARYLAND21224 March 31, 1971 DEPARTMENT OF PEDIATRIC Ha r oUd E. Ha r r iso n . M.D. pedia t r ic ia n-rn -ch ief Dr. Robert A . Kehoe Professor Emeritus of Occupational Medicine Universit y o f Cincinnat i Ket t er ing Laborat ory Departm ent o f Environm ent al Healt h Ci n ci n n at i , Oh io 4521 9 Dear Dr, Kehoe: Man y thanks for your ver y kind let t er o f March 15. 1 too regret that our past corres pondence has lapsed somewhat. 1 want to thank you for your ver y kind remarks about my efforts on the lead panel for the Nat io n al Acad em y o f Scien ces. I suspect my current views ar e reason ab ly clear from that cont ribut ion. 1 have been struggling for at least the past nine months to reach some conclusions as to where t he real risk lies and how one can be reasonable about this problem. 1 b elieve that the evid en ce supports the concept that blood lead levels < 40 pg Pb % are associat ed wit h no risk to healt h w h at ever that the 40 to 60 pg Pb range is a slig h t ly gray zone and t hat the risk o f adverse healt h ef fect s begins to rise sig n if ican t ly as blood lead levels rise above 60 pg Pb/ 100 G whole blood. Ob vio u sly, much remains to be done to d et erm in e whether this is an accu r at e view o f the sit uat ion. Cl ear l y, industrial lead workers and young ch ild ren in urban areas are the ones at risk t od ay. We have been doing blood lead levels, ch el a tion tests and q u an t it at ive urinary A LA det erm inat ions in children during the past year whose blood lead levels l i e bet ween 25 and 80 pg Pb %. Unf ort unat ely, no child ren wit h lo w er blood levels were avai lab le for that study. 1 am about t o prepare this for p ub licat ion and wi l l be glad to supply you w it h a m anuscript when i t is com plet ed. Some o f the pert inent data w i l l be includ ed in the lead panel report. in conclusion, I might say t hat i t is easy to t ak e an ex treme view at eit h er end of the spectrum. To me, the d i f f i cu l t y is in f inding the m iddle ground and def ining the risk from the scien t if ic basis. However, i f i f is d i f f i cu l t , it makes it int erest ing and wort h wh ile, so I shall pursue the problem. '. Yours sin cer ely, JJC.- o v KE 0020213 J. / j u l i a n Chisolm , Jr . , M. D.