Document nm8ydRK6dqJdovQVM2kz6VKXz

Reprint from New York Times of June 24, 1925. PRIONDUTCETTIROANETHHAYZLARLDEAD Will Be Investigated, as Well as SupproaseetdhyDl aGngaesorliinne Tet W A S H IN G T O N , June 23.-- Any in ference that the special committee ap pointed by the Surgeon General of the Public Health Service to investigate the consequences of the use of tetra ethyl gasoline will not investigate the industrial hazards involved in the pro duction o f tetraethyl itself is wrong, Surgeon General Hugh S. Cumming stated to-night, after reading the article by Silas Bent, published in Monday's N ew Y ork T im es, on the casualties in the du Pont company's plant at Deep Water, N. J. Surgeon General Cumming said that while there might be an impression from the resolution passed at the recent meeting in Washington that the committee would not go into this phase of the situation, this was a wrong conclusion. On the other hand, it would conduct its investigation from all angles. While he had not any idea that the committee would not look carefully into the industrial hazards of pro ducing tetraethyl, Dr- Cumming said, he would conduct an investigation of his own should the committee fail to cover the point. REPRODUCED AT t h e NATIONAL ARCHIVES CTD a CD *0 D> r3-f i2 9L 5 03< o75 -> -1 CD T CD ocot TJ Clinton White House 220.1clinton Presidential Re,co_rds-/i 4_u_sc maintained by tile reservation of six oss the Delaware lington, where the eless powder plants r treatment he went a week later had louldn't eat, and on :n he slept he suful nightmares. On ic violent and two e assigned to care the death certificate specified "acute intoxication lead tetraethyl" she was W. Fiebre (DeFicbre), a laborer who later died, has shut down the plant to silent but later admitted it. As a fact make modifications to insure greater the man escaped some time after the manufacturing safety. * * * The du operation from the hospital to the Pont Company experienced trouble with street and was caught there. At du men becoming poisoned in the early Pont headquarters it was admitted stages of the manufacture of this chem that this was a case of poisoning. ical, but for a year difficulties have Sim Jones, negro janitor at " The diminished steadily and for the past sev House of the Butterflies," wore old eral months, under full production, only shoes and absorbed the poison through slight trouble had been encountered until his feet. It is fatal If inhaled or taken these recent fatal illnesses occurred." same reason. " In several hundred cases which I treated during that first year," he said, " I did not lose one. Durr, who died while I was there, was under the care of his family physician. I had the first cases of the disease ever known. Although it is nervous and mental, neurologists had no clinical background for it. It was a brand new challenge to medical skill. twitching muscular nurses recorded; uilse shallow." And ient's head is thrown as some one is after \nd then: " Patient's inning and gritting .er he was put into he became so vio>e held in bed. ee months and was Dr. A. R. Lynch, nd afterward chief edical staff on the Zanes was able to assigned for a time it returned to tetraand was poisoned icr of last year it time. These were acks, although the )US. he didn't know it working with," said Dr- Lynch raised a lie plant." nearly all the per- through the skin in sufficient quantities. In all, Miss Harris said, forty-eight cases were treated at Salem. Sim Jones was the last to die there in 1924. Thought Danger Averted. Jones died on Oct. 20, about the time the series of deaths in the Stand ard Oil plant at Bayway centred pub lic attention on the startling consequen ces of tetraethyl poisoning. An official of the Ethyl Gasoline Corporation said publicly that the du Ponts had been having trouble too; and Irenee du Pont, President of the E- I. du Pont de Nemours Company, issued on Oct. 30, ten days after Sim Jones died, the following statement: Tetraethyl lead, which the du Pont Company is manufacturing on a com mercial scale, and which is reported as the cause of the recent unfortunate accident at the Bayway plant of the Standard Oil Company, should not be confused with ethyl gas, an improved motor fuel which contains less than one tenth-part of 1 per cent, of tetra ethyl lead. The plant had, as a fact, been closed by order of Dr. Andrew F. McBride of Paterson, chief of the New Jersey State Labor Commission,, Dr. Mc Bride had been conducting State wide inquiry into the manufacture, use and transportation of tetraethyl lead. In the latter part of November lie reported to Governer Silzer that no more of the poison should be man ufactured. The plant was closed five weeks before Dr. McBride gave permission to reopen it. Meanwhile the du Ponts spent $60,000 making mechanical ad justments and installing a new venti lating system, whereby warmed and moistened air within the plant is changed every forty seconds, in order to reduce the danger. T w o Deaths After Plant Closed. The last fatalities were of a mill wright and his helper, who were poisoned while making some repairs and died after the plant was closed. These were James Connell, who died at his home in Wilmington, and Loring " We found that nightmares were the first symptom and that these were followed by insomnia. Then came restlessness and inability to eat. Sometimes a patient lost as much as thirty pounds in a few weeks. The blood pressure fell. Frequently they were nauseated. Then came hallucin ations. There was no `wrist drop,' none of the symptoms of the wellknown industrial lead poisoning. In the later stages some of the men be came suicidal and had to be prevented from destroying themselves." 'Charles Hendricks, employed as painter in the tetraethyl plant, was one worker who tried to kill himself. He jumped from a ferry between Penns Grove and Wilmington last April. He was delirious, and his weight had gone down from 180 pounds to 135. H arry Baker, who was confined at the Salem Hospital, jumped from a window while his male nurse was out of the room, but was caught and returned to his bed. This incident came to public attention and the patient was removed to a private sanitorium at Gladwyn, Pa., where the du Ponts er, was that the du Tetraethyl lead is poisonous, and its M. Boody, who died at Carney's are paying his bills in addition to a ery precaution posrd their employees manufacture involves risk but no more so than many chemicals manufactured Point, on the du Pont reservation. bi-weekly allowance to his wife. He is still under treatment. iff they were hand- and used in enormously greater Boody the helper, was attended by amounts. Dr. Lee of the du Pont staff, and the Precautions in Distribution. n Old Employe. py) Durr, 37 years :d for the du Fonts of 12, was the first mil). He was ill md died in a strait, 1923 at his home There was no story ne paper, and none 1 The Penns Grove The du Pont Company, during the experimental period, experienced much trouble with men becoming poisoned, even to the extent of fatalities. Dur ing the past year of production, when more than 100 men have been em ployed continuously, the difficulty has diminished steadily. In the past sev death was attributed in part to uremic poisoning. The day before Boody's death Connell went home ill, and died on March 27. In regard to both these cases the du Pont Publicity Bureau gave out items to the W il mington daily newspapers, which are owned by the du Ponts. At first tetraethyl lead was shipped from Deep Water in small containers, which were stuck into funnel-like at tachments at filling stations, so that the poison would mix automatically with the gasoline as it was pumped into motor tanks. This was soon seen to be dangerous and the plan was changed. The mixture was shipped in a half-column eral months, under full production, Regarding the four deaths which in 40 gallon metal drums to the dis rst page the facts only slight difficulties have been en have occurred this year, therefore, tributing points, there to be mixed inapiiier) Barkdulfl, countered- Experience has taught the there has been scattering publicity. with the gasoline. Then, at its last illy killed by clecnt two days after necessary protection, both in plant and The fact of< Huntsinger's death at stage, it was found safest to mix the lerill, editor of The 1 not remember the guess the reason we ling about Durr's we couldn't get it." ley suppress things nt at Deep Water, we pick up from the mpiofstnhoyonederWmidseiwcopiecacnotaatooerenlfmkmdiyeni.cprtdaasbhrnyaietDneyrh.nmoatgtchthcatioeogiwssnreostdiidnrmnkociiuamnninpateeeli,tlternhyhinaibetsclyumspemitarmaanokugvpcmeleaelasorsta,iiysrtav.ekbebseolletdyysf Bridgeton was reported in the New York newspapers. But even before these deaths occurred there were persistent rumors of trouble at Deep W ater; and last November it was re ported and printed that there had been nine deaths, although at that time there had been but four. tetraethyl with gasoline at the point of manufacture and ship it in tank cars- In this way it was expected to keep it away from persons not edu cated to the proper precautions in handling the stuff, such as washing in coal oil, or kerosene, parts of the body exposed to it. The industry had ho lives now with In "the past several months" to whichmdstown, ten miles Mr. du Pont referred as causing "slightove, told me that difficulties," there had been three deaths.ed at the plant only jas Durr had been There were no more fatalities until the1 Pouts for twenty- Later Precautions Futile C. K. Weston who is at the head reached this stage when, pending the of the du Pont Publicity Bureau, said outcome of the Federal investigation, that the earlier deaths were not treat all production was stopped the middle ed as news because, until after the of last April. Bayway tragedy, there was no public Thomas Midgley Jr. worked out the interest in such occurrences. formula for tetraethyl lead in the du bfoelglouwn ining tFheebnruewarypla,nat,ftwerhewreorskpehcaiadl Dangers Soon Revealed. Pont plants while employed as a chem du Fonts were pro ist by the General Motors, of which the precautions had been taken. In thatlead in what had "The complete list of deaths from du Ponts own 7,000,000 shares, about month three workers died.In July, 1924, there poisoning, another in October. W ork way on a five-story SX150 feet in size, this purpose, and it Jan 1 of this year or the Afflicted. A change was made in the process of manufacture. Prior to this the ethyl for the compound had been introduced in the form of ethyl bromide; but the bromine required for this ingredient is costly to manufacture and difficult to the Deep Water plant is now in the hands of Dr. McBride," he added. " We have told the facts and it is ab surd to say that the du Ponts have suppressed anything, or that they subsidize hospitals. As a matter of custom they contribute small sums to one-third. This was three years ago, and soon afterward the du Ponts began production at the old dye plant at Deep Water. Subsequently officials of General Motors and the Standard Oil of New Jersey organized the Ethyl Gasoline Corporation, in which died and who were orce were classified cates as "dye worklors-" The reserva- procure in quantities sufficient for the commerical operators as the du Ponts had in view. The chemists decided to try ethyl chloride instead. Chlorine, all the hospitals which are near their plants and which are likely to be asked to treat patients. The contribution this year to the Salem Hospital was the du Ponts had no interest save through their holdings of General Motors stock, and began production at the Bayway plant, near Elizabeth, e dye works" is, in the powder mills were employed at a greenish-yellow and extremely pois onous gas, can be manufactured in huge quantities. only $500; but, of course, in addition to that the company pays, and pays well, for the treatment of its patients. N. J. There was a commercial rivalry between this plant and that at Deep Water, although the Bayway factory Frederick W. DeFicbre, a worker, war in the produc- " Our people themselves did not was the smaller. The du Ponts em years old, was the first to die, onowder), a congeries 21 know about this disease at first, but ployed as many as 200 men in their P'eb. from poisoning in the new'hosgene and chlor- 21, the physicians quickly learned to cope tetraethyl plant at one time, but its plant. To the Salem Hospital is anas the toxic benzol with it. W e began manufacturing sixteen units never reached full pro ambulance run of but twenty minutes,:tured there. tetraethyl lead about three years ago, duction- 3 1S AIHDHV TV N O I VN 3JLL JW n'TnnnnM^'qvt REPRODUCED AT THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES 22 1925Re pr in t from T h e N e w Y or k Times June , . TETRAETHYL LEAD 11 at Delaware Hospital in Wilmington In the old tetraethyl plant there was and Dr. Harry W . Lee, chief surgeon and one of the doctors said to me once after doing some work in the plant- a series of explosions and fires, which of the du Pont staff at Deep Water, that he had never known an industrial The death certificate gives typhoid occurred from chemical reactions rushed the patient for treatment. malady which flew the red flag so ADWinca8DaanoslegIrhDandleFCiiterdnnhoAasaugemsdtTtsi,notpDArDSno3iPoiueaL0nereIln0csonpdedPqT1Nu1WueSPO1corih,rliiataonlyitnnwgeCMWtrInton,1hvAhCtieNeonPiKlrco.Cl.hGRaEsJhenea.RdettcsmhoSeIllness Begins W ith as the cause. Mrs. M ao' Casey o f 606 Spruce Street, Wilmington, a cousin of Demesse and his closest relative in this country, told me of a conversation with Dr. Lawrence J. Rigney, whom she called into the case. "He said there were typhoid germs in the body," she explained, " but that John's lead poisoning didn't help him any." Efforts to reach Dr. Rigney were un successful. Not he, but Dr- John R. Russo, a member of the hospital staff, while the autoclaves, huge mixing vats, were being emptied or cleaned. From these there were no deaths, but there were many injuries. C. D. Porch, superintendent of the plant, was him self badly burned, and some of the chemists required medical treatment. Arrangements were made with the Salem (N. J.) Memorial Hospital, to which the du Ponts give annual contri butions, to care for patients from Deep Water, and such cases have been its chief source of revenue- An executive of " the dye works" is on the hospital's Board of Managers. Even before this death Robert F. Huntsinger, 35 years old, had become ill and had insisted on going to his home at Bridgeton, twenty miles away in Cumberland County. He lived there at 120 Orchard Street. When he be came violently insane Dr. E. C. Lyon, who was treating him and who is the county physician, took him to the Bridgeton Hospital, where it was found that the patient's condition was such he could not be cared for. Then he was taken to the Cumberland County Hospital for the Insane, where six men were required at times to quickly. "The du Ponts are well known for their interest in their employees. They spare no expense to protect the health and lives of their men, and when one is hurt or loses his life, the company pays, in New Jersey and every other State where it has properties, higher compensation and pension rates than the law requires. It is a fact that we have a great deal of trouble inducing the men to be cautious. W e have to protect them against themselves." Mr. Weston had heard of the workers' name for the plant. Hallucinations signed the death certificate. When asked about the symptoms of the Demesse case he said he had no recollec tion of it and he reported several hours later that he could find no record of it at the hospital. The death certifi cate gave no contributory cause of death, nor was there any answer in the certificate to the question : "Where was disease contracted if not at place of death?" This space was left blank. A ll the men who died in 1924, and restrain him. He died there Feb. 16, one in 1925, were under treatment at two days later. Dr. Lee went from this hospital. They were hard to man Deep Water to help Dr. Lyon attend age on account of their violence, and the patient. the du Ponts, in addition to paying all medical expenses and providing for the families, sent male nurses to at tend and restrain the patients. A reporter for a Bridgeton news paper asked the county physician whether he would ask for an inquest. ." No," said Dr. Lyon, "it was not an An official of the hospital told me accident. It was an occupational that Joseph Cianci, the victim in July, disease, and there is no occasion to call a man of great strength, had actually in the Coroner." " Some of them drew pictures of butterflies on the walls of the plant," he said. "This disease is somewhat like delirium tremens. Instead of see ing snakes, the men see butterflies." Danger in Gas, N ot Gasoline. Since production began 300,000,000 gallons of ethyl gasoline have been distributed in twenty-eight States, from 12,000 filling stations, with no record of Butterflies and Term inates in Violent Insanity and Death. Demesse was a widower, 35 years by his insane violence overturned the old. A t du Pont headquarters the bed to which he was strapped; but Miss point was stressed that if poisoning Hanna B. Harris, Superintendent, Plant Closed Soon Afterwards. of poisoning or ill-health from its use, according to Mr. Weston. The name Dr. Lyon, who repeated this state "looney gas" is deceptive, in his view, had contributed to his death his rela denied this. ment to me, was warm in his praise in that it may apply to the ethyl gaso Deaths in Tetraethyl Gas %Production -a-t--a Single Plant Sept. 2r, 1923 -- F R A N K W . DURR, 37 years old, dye worker, died at Penns Grove, N. J .; at tended by Dr- Raymond B. Jarratt. 24July 30. 1924-- JO SE P H C IA N C I, years old, dye works opera tor; died at Salem !(N . J.) Memorial Hospital; attended by Dr. Harry W. Lee. 23Aug. 12, 1924-- F R A N K H A N LE Y , years old, dye w orker; received at Salem Hospital with gastric ulcer and underwent op eration, but went insane subse quently from tetraethyl lead poi soning; attended by Dr. F. HChurch. Oct. 20, 1924-- SIM JO N ES, 47 years old, negro janitor at plant; died in Salem Hospital; atten ded by Dr. Lee. Feb. 13, 1023-- F R E D E R IC K W . tives would ment. have demanded a settle "I've seen him actually lift the bed three or four inches off the floor by of the du Ponts for the care they ex ercised in behalf of their employees. line instead of ethyl lead. the fumes from tetra Death After Three Attacks The first tetraethyl poisoning of medical record was that of Harry A. Zanes, now 53 years old, who lives at 97 I street, in Carney's point, an indus trial town owned by the du Ponts ad joining Deep Water. He became ill on Sept- 9, 1923, and went to the emergency hospital maintained by the du Ponts on their reservation of six square miles across the Delaware River from Wilmington, where the chemical and smokeless powder plants are grouped. A fter treatment he went back to work, but a week later had to go home. He couldn't eat, and on rare occasions when he slept he suf fered from frightful nightmares. On Sept. 19 he became violent and two trained nurses were assigned to care for him. " The patient has twitching muscular contractions," the nurses recorded ; " respiration rapid, pulse shallow." And a little later; " Patient's head is thrown his struggles," she said , "but I'm sure he was never as bad as that." The facts about the death were print ed in the Bridgeton newspapers, and inquiries were made regarding it at Miss Harris did not admit at first du Pont headquarters. A statement that Frank Hanley's death in August was issued by the publicity department was due to tetraethyl poisoning. in which, after giving the facts of his " He had an ulcer of the stomach illness, it was said; and underwent an operation," she ex " Meanwhile the company, because plained. But when she was told that of his illness and the illness of Fred the death certificate specified "acute W . Fiebre (DeFiebre), a laborer who intoxication lead tetraethyl" she was later died, has shut down the plant to silent but later admitted it. As a fact make modifications to insure greater the man escaped some time after the manufacturing safety. * * * The du operation from the hospital to the Pont Company experienced trouble with street and was caught there. At du men becoming poisoned in the early Pont headquarters it was admitted stages of the manufacture of this chem that this was a case of poisoning. ical, but for a year difficulties have Sim Jones, negro janitor at "The diminished steadily and for the past sev House of the Butterflies," wore old eral months, under full production, only shoes and absorbed the poison through slight trouble had been encountered until his feet. It is fatal if inhaled or taken these recent fatal illnesses occurred." through the skin in sufficient quantities. The plant had, as a fact, been closed In all, Miss Harris said, forty-eight by order of Dr. Andrew F. McBride cases were treated at Salem. Sim of Paterson, chief of the New Jersey Jones was the last to die there in 1924. State Labor Commission,, Dr. Me- T3 r t r i Vi o ri H A f tri ir tr r o ^ Lit f P - Dr. Lynch, former chief surgeon at Deep Water, is now practicing medi cine at Wilmington and occasionally has tetraethyl cases. He was reluctant to discuss the disease because he is no longer associated with the du Ponts, and said he had refrained from pub lishing a paper dealing with his year's experience in their service for the same reason. " In several hundred cases which I treated during that first year," he said, "I did not lose one. Durr, who died while I was there, was under the care of his family physician. I had the first cases of the disease ever known. Although it is nervous and mental, neurologists had no clinical background for it. It was a brand new challenge to medical skill. " We found that nightmares were the first symptom and that these were followed by insomnia. Then came restlessness and inability to eat. Sometimes a patient lost as much as 1 1 - 1 *TM REPRODUCED AT THE ' NATIONAL ARCHIVES Reprint from Nczu York Times of June 24,* 1925. PROINDUTCETTIROANETHHAYZLARLDEAD WilSluBpeproIasneevtdhesyDtligaGantgaeesdro,liiannseWTeetll as W A SH IN G T O N , June 23.-- Any in ference that the special committee ap pointed by the Surgeon General of the Public Health Service to investigate the consequences of the use of tetra ethyl gasoline will not investigate the industrial hazards involved in the pro duction of tetraethyl itself is wrong, Surgeon General Hugh S. Cumming stated to-night, after reading the article by Silas Bent, published in Monday's N ew Y ork T im es, on the casualties in the du Pont company's plant at Deep Water, N. J. Surgeon General Cumming said that while there might be an impression from the resolution passed at the recent meeting in Washington that the committee would not go into this phase of the situation, this was a wrong conclusion. O11 the other hand, it would conduct its investigation from all angles. While he had not any idea that the committee would not look carefully into the industrial hazards of pro ducing tetraethyl, Dr- Cumming said, he would conduct an investigation of his own should the committee fail to cover the point.