Document jmdY33ENG3zkqMyqbJYrk2KrO

*'Director October 14* 194-9 Dr* E, Emmet Kelley, M, D. Medical Director Monsanto Chemical Company , St. Louis Ut Missouri Dear Dr. Kelley: Thank you very much for your-letter of October 7 relative to this Bureau1s participatio in the problem at your Niiro plant. From your letter it appears that there has been .seme misunderstanding about our purpose in venting additional laboratory tests made,_ end I will try to explain as cleariy as possible vhat.ve have in mind. As you are aware, since the initial explosion of March 8.which contaminated the various buildings there have been a number of cases diagnosed as wchloracnert, which have develo; as a result of the explosion either from contaminated equipment or from the offending Material being in the air. Bepeated attempts have been made to clean the building and ^ equipment but new cases continued to develop up to a few weeks ago, with one very recen case developing as a result of contact of an employee with transite roofing on the buil which was apparently impregnated with the offending material. Ve have made repeated attempts in our laboratory to identify the material In question, but with no success an' Mr. Durland advises that your research laboratory has likewise been unable to identify or finger print the material. .Our principal concera at this time is not to identify the material for the sake of identification but to arrive -at some.means of determining whether .or not the building or its various `parts has been sufficiently decontaminated in order that ve can justifiai say that ;an employee can vork in the buildings without being further exposed. Since'ou: chemical methods have failed up to this time,it appeared to us that`the logical step wen be to take scrapings from the vails, ledges, etc. of various areas in the plant and use these for animal experimentation to determine whether or not any of the material remain: could cause this particular type of acne. We had in mind the testing cf these various materials along with some of the pure reaction products on rabbit ears tc ascertain whet or not the acne producing properties still remained. Being acquainted with Dr. Smyth and with some of the vork he has done along this line, I thought perhaps such work could be done by his group. However, -if Dr. Kehoe's group is in a position to do similar studies, ve certainly would be quite agreeable to their doing-the vork.in place of Dr. Smyth. It . R. Ssset Kelley, M. D. 2- October 14, 1949 The work involved, as I understand, would if done by the Jfellon Laboratory cost approximately $50.00 per sample and I can visualize approximately 6 or 8 samples. Dr. Snyth advises that due to their industrial affiliations, the work would be done only provided your Company would request such work to be done, and that he .would also have to clear such work with their New lork office. Whether or not it could be arranged for the State to defray the expense'of carrying out these tests would depend upon Br. Smyth obtaining permission to accept money from a State agency and, of course, upon our ability to obtain the necessary funds. We would appreciate very much your contacting Dr. Kshoe to ascertain whether or not his group is in position to do such work, although I am not aware of any published work of this type being done hy-Kettering Laboratory. In any event we would appreciate your further thoughts on this matter and assistance in helping us assure the employees that their-working "places* have been "rendered free of harmful acne producing materials. Very truly yours, STATS JEPAKTKENT 0? EEAITH Bureau of Industrial Hygiene . By___________________ _ Paul D. Kalley, . Acting Director Industrial Hygienist PDH/je