Document k5bLDE7mdE53NVwGRqg8j4Kb

December 5, 1950 sir. Cecil J. Geraghty, Executive Secretary,. Assembly Pollution Committee, 2129 Grove Street, Oakland 12, California. ; ..V: Dear Mr*. Geraghty: I am pleased to have an opportunity to comment briefly on your letter of November 15 and its enclosure of a copy of the letter to Surgeon General Scheele. For obvious reasons I shall not undertake to put any words in Surgeon General Scheelefs mouth nor to interpret in advance anything he may say. Therefore, my :;c,oiamcnfcs are based on our own experiences'w i t h tills problem. us you are probably veil aware, " M s Laboratory in <be 'University of Cincinnati, has been carrying on. extensive-.investigations on the general problem of the lead exposure tc..the''lAmericar. community :as well as the occupational lead exposure existent, in American industries in general e have also, of: course, under cue financial sponsors-hip of .Ethyl Corporation, carried on rather extensive general investigations and industrial hygiene services, in connection with the problem, of leaded gasoline, including the hazards of the nanufacture of tetraethyl lead, the hazards of its mixture with gasoline, and the potential hazards associated with any aspect of 'this industry in this country and abroad. I think it is fair to say.:that most, -of the information on this subject, insofar as it has been gathered in ., the last fifteen years, has been done in -this Laboratory and has gone 'through our hands. Unfortunately> a large proportion of our experimental studies, our observations' in the community.and in Indus trial establishments, Including those of Ethyl Corporation and the petroleum refineries, have not been made available through publication From time to time somewhat fragmentary information has been put together for publication, and some rather extensive pieces of investigative; vqrfe have been published in d e t a i l . Our problem has been, however, that we have not had the t i m e , ,.in -the, course of busy days, to gather together these data,and to make them available through the ordinary avenues of scientific publication. As a matter of fact, I am planning to free myself of many of my other duties, both in consultation and more particularly in connection with the routine work of the Laboratory, so as to be able to gather together these data, study them carefully, and write a general monograph on the subject. The data are voluminous, many/nf.;the problems have been studied with minute care, and very important matters of fact have been well established. I think it la fair to say, that in part, at least, through our efforts, we have been able to safeguard both, industrial employees and the public, in relation to occupational and K\ 0004391 Mr. Cecil J. Geraghty - (2) - December 5* 1950 health hazards arising out of this Industry. ff'ne evidence in proof of this, however, has not been made available to scientific and medical people. I feel that this must be done and it- :l3 for this reason that I expect to devote a very considerable portion of my time to t;is effort within the next year. This documentary evidence will not be available in time to be of much service to your committee. On the other 'and, I sm quite prepared to ororalse, and I shall be glad, to reply ar Trell c.s I can to specific questions that may be raised by the committee and to submit at least some documentary evidence In support of ny statements. For example, we have been engaged in the 3tudy of the City of Cincinnati over a period of more than two yearn with respect to the overall problem and the sources of contamination of the air- with lead compounds. Some of the data on those investi gations .a.e '-`wen vi-er.not'd ir'.efVr, out for the most part they have not been published, and It has not been our- Intention to publish them until some time to come. Tiowever, t'ne rinformation teat Is already available can be utilized for what it Is wor:.h to your committee. Vo are now encaged in a systemar-io and long term study of the problem -\t' lead absorption from inhalation of lead compounds in the air. Much has been written on trds subject in tnc oast, cur there have not been precise and crucial experiments to test the hypotheses that have been developed rn these matters. We are study ing a human subject and we expect to study a series of human '.objects in this manner,in order to clarify these problems*. Our purpose is to establish, byrt.^e 3 M t o rpf atmospheric contamination, what are the fac t s ;ccncernilbf /irfe v^erickn copulation cc lead from this source. You are probably'aware that lead in the -exhaust gas of automobiles is only one of t7ie factors that-, enters into this picture and, in ... fact, it is not i-he most important -one. On the other hand, we are attempting to establish what level of general exposure in the population is to be regarded as hazardous. The problem core is not only that of lead in the a i r , "but it .includes-' also' -lead in all the food and drink which ire take in. The question of risk to the public from lead absorption is the question of the composite Exposure' of individuals to lead compounds, ;in.ail of the variety of ways in which individuals inevitably come in contact with lead c.cmounds in the course of their daily life. I believe I may say quite realistically, without any suggestion of boasting, that we have more information In this Laboratory on this subject than Is available elsewhere. He shall be glad, at an; appropriate time, to make available all of the Information that we have. Unfor tunately as I Indicated above, this cannot be done immediately, because of the necessity of subjecting our huge mass of Information, to careful correlation and study. I shall be glad to send you, on your request, all of the published material which we have on this subject, and I shall.'also be pleased to answer any questions that I can concerning the specific problem of lead in motor fuels. .I ' Very truly yours, v RE R6S. ef 'Jichert A. Kehoe, M D