Document dn1eRawkJooM0o8DDenqgV885

INTERNAL MEDICINE LUTHER W. KELLY, M.D. CARDIOLOGY WALTER B. MAYER, M.D. DERMATOLOGY LUTHER W, KELLY, JR., M.D. ENDOCRINOLOGY F1TZ GERALD H IESTAND, JR. GASTROENTEROLOGY JOHN R. SMITH, M.D. CARDIOLOGY ALLERGY AND ARTHRITIS LUCIUS G. GAGE, JR., M GENERAL SURGERY EDWARD R. HIPP. M.D. WALTER C. HILDERMAN, M.D. EDWARD R. HIPP, JR., M.D. THORACIC AND VASCULAR SURGERY THE NALLE CLINIC J3SO SOUTH KINGS DRIVE CHARLOTTE 7, N. C. July 7, 196k OBSTETRICS AND GYNECOLOGY JAMES A. CROWELL, M.D. EDWARD F. HARDMAN, M.D. ORTHOPEDIC SURGERY ALFRED R. BERKELEY, JR., M.D. J. ROBINSON HICKS, M.D. OTOLARYNGOLOGY JOHN W. FOUST, M.D. PEDIATRICS J. ROBERT ADAMS, M.D. R. THEODORE LUCAS, JR., M.D. RADIOLOGY ALLAN TUGGLE, M.D. FRED E. WISE, JR., M.D. UROLOGY PRESTON NOWLIN, M.D. LESTER L. SMITH, JR., M.D. Dr. Robert A. Kehoe Director of Kettering LaboratoryUniversity of Cincinnati College of Medicine Cincinnati, Ohio Dear Dr. Kehoe: For the last several years I have taken care of the workers in a smelting plant here in Charlotte. Problems of different sorts have come up over the years and I am writing to ask if you can lend me a hand in solving them. Particularly, X would like to know if you would be able to do blood and urine leads for the company. In the past, X have been accustomed to sending these out to a laboratory on the West Coast which has given very good service. How ever, they seldom, if ever report elevation of the blood lead or urine lead to toxic levels. There has never been a really serious case of lead poisoning but we do have a fair number of mild anemias with con siderable stippling and employees with lead lines. Ihere has never been wrist drop or encephalopathy. Ihere has occasionally been perhaps extreme constipation with some abdominal pain although this is hard to evaluate. The discrepancy between what seems to be obvious signs of lead poisoning and the blood and urine leads reported below toxic level has puzzled me and I hoped you would be able to explain it or that your labora tory might find that these values are elevated. X believe that the manufacturing plant has adequate ventilation; however, the employees do not seem to grasp the idea that they should be very careful in their personal hygiene and careful to wear masks. Please let me know if you can do this for us and if you furnish the containers for collecting blood and urine samples. Please also let me know your opinion of the value of routine coproporphyrin determinations on the urine. Thanking you in advance, I am Yours truly, y ^^ W. 3. Mayer, M. D,