Document g2r0bQrxpw94jMd4zorkX1ZKN

larch 2, 1955 Mr* H. M. Maxwell , -..V The Standard Oil Company Sales Department Cleveland, Ohio Dear Arch* The situation of your employee* Mr, __ as outlined in your letter of February 28th, la not entirely accurate. I shall undertake to give you a clear picture of the matter as 1 see it, after which I shall hold myself in readiness to cooperate with your people in any possible way. From time to tifio during the past two years, some one of us has seen various cases, for the most part skin irritations, which have occurred among the employees of your company. As you are undoubtedly aware, there have been a number of cases of dermatitis of one sort of another associated with the handling of gasoline. These conditions seem to have Increased in number since Ethyl Gasoline was introduced on the market. Statistics can not be obtained on the matter but the tendency to ascribe these cases to the handling of Ethyl Gasoline has led me to believe either that there are more such oases in recent years or that they are of a somewhat more severe character than was formerly the case. You will remember that some time ago, I expressed myself as believing that these conditions might be due to certain compounds which occur in "cracked" gasoline as . differentiated from ordinary natural run gasoline* W have thus been Interested in getting at th facts in this matter for some time and it is for that reason that we have been Interested in seeing suoh cases as originated locally. In August of 1952,. Dr. Machle was told about the case of On August 5rd* he saw him at the Good Samaritan l with your Dr. Reps. After this he wrote Mr, Weber of your company* I attach a copy of the letter. In October, arrangement^gere made that your local representative should have Mr^ 0 H v c o m e to the laboratory and be under our ob servations for such period of time as might be neeessnry to determine the character of his dermatitis. At this time he t" omo o&o was practically well though there were still a few lesions of the skin. Our purpose was to determine the causative agent of his dermatitis and if possible, to oorreot it. Thus it Is hardly fair to call it experimentation in the senee that Mr, might be regarded as a disinterested person. It became apparent from the first tests that the primary causative agent was some ingredient of gasoline, and with further observa K f 0011931 occupation, someway of eliminating bis -unusual susceptibility to gasoline had to bo found^Jitwas thus clear In our minds and 1ms mado clear t M r W H H V t h a t wo were not merely doing . ,istfef o i ? I n f o r m a t i o n , but that M s - -> health and M e future occupation were Involved In the matter# iS^ioyi^oft^^^^pptfi^labfilratoity; would'tMnk of doing experimental workmen' "'whichwere not la the interest of the subjecthi^o^^aicr^onld^'WO^oonsidor any experiment justified' If there were reason to bellev^ihafc it would be Injurious# Tima..;wo proceeded with Mr f M H f c e x a c tly as we would with any other; patient* l'iOihftd^a:'specirfcHfeneitivlty to.some organic * substance* Hla'skin was tested with minute amounts of a variety f materials in order to establish which one or ones might be the offending materials# In the course of these tests* Mr* Hiller developed a considerable reaction which caused the quiescent skin lesions to flare up* Even this Is not an unusual circumstance In th study and treatment of such conditions# One may frequently get reactions which are greater than he an- a tlelpated* It was apparent therefore that the clinical study of the-condition was not without certain risks, although there was no danger to life# Hr# ^ k w a s put in the hospital on two occasions and m s flnallyoSsiSarged the last time only when the lesions had cleared up* During the period of M s hospitalisation, he was seen by fewo dermatologists, as well as by Dr# MacMo# s On M s return home* his skin condition flared up again# There is ? no reason to believe that this latter flare up had anything to f do with histreatment at our hands* It was rather the result of I somejai^mam a gentin his home environment# The fact is that very sensitive to a number of things other than gas o l i n e T w b ther this was produced originally by M s gasoline exposure is difficult to determine but it is true when one has a specific sensitivity such as for example to food materials or to the pollen of plants (as in asthma and hay-fever), he is very likely to be sensitive t^y^Mgmber of other substances to a lesser extent* With recovery from his dermatitis, we felt that wCiWere justifled in discharging M m from our care and'that although w had not been able to cure M s sensitivity or to? prevent1the recurrence of M s dermatitis, yet we had not done M m any Injury and we were returning him to your company*s employ in substantially the same condition that we had found M m # s I see the situation, :it is as follows t is a definite industrial problemi he was an employee of your company when this problem originatedjf we as physicians have at tempted to treat M m and to eliminate his difficulty and we have = - not succeeded; as a consequence of this fact, the problem which you had prior to bur care of M m is still your problem and it was ; not modified in any substantial way by our treatment except that : w now know some f the agents that were responsible for M s original condition* The only other factor wherein this situation, is different from other medical bare la that during the period of our observations, all of the expense was borne by tils laboratory# The man was at no time an employee of the Ethyl Gasoline Corpora-, gion nor does the Ethyl Gasoline Corporation have any responsi bility; rather this laboratory and Dr* Machie and ray3 elf as ,, physicians, are responsible* In this matter w were hot acting as agents of the Ethyl Gasoline Corporation* ' (,-1332. - - '" - -* ' * At the present time both Dr# Machleand I hold Jgourselves in readiness to do anything for that we can* However* we do not feel Justified in continuing our observations* not so much because of the risk involved as beemis^wehave not found it possible to rely altogether on M^* cooperation We have found that he was not following instructions exactly as they were given and this made it impossible to interpret accurately the experimental observations Thus w did not feel that we oould do any thing more for him Incidentally X have known about the details of the handling of Mr I have personally approved of the procedures with relation to your local per sonnel department I repeat I feel that we have done every thing we can for Mr V H H f t and that we have not done him any injury but have given hin^at least the service of demonstrating that he can not continue to handle gasoline without a repetition of his skin condition*. Just what can be done about this by your company I do hot know but we are unable to prevent ^ r t h e r recurrence of dermatitis Hence our advice to Mr would be to change his occupation T M ^ i s difficult at this time and It is unfortunate for Mr* but I do not believe the situation would be altered one bit if we were to keep him under our observation for six months or a year. I do not think the laboratory would be justified in doing this since the industrial situation involved Is not of our making* From ray point of view it is exactly as though we had found an incurable cancer in one of your employees after some period of study In that situation we could not curs the cancer but we would not In the natural course of events expect to support the patient even though we recognised his pitiable state The only difference is that in this instance the condition does not involve danger to life and moreover, since it developed in the course of his employment and since it is related to gasoline it is clearly occupational -f I trust I have made my.point of view clear* I do not present it in an argumentative way and in view of the relationships which have existed between us personally and between your local people and our group at the laboratory* I should not wish to enter into an argument* Consequently* when you have considered what I have said, I would be glad if you would wilt to me and tell me exactly what you think about it* M With kindest personal regards* J Very truly yours* 7V RAKiIS ' :"3