Document peGZR37wjpa9Jyq4mox14o7a

\ y ETHYL CORPORATION Ma nufa gt uking and Tr a f f ic Depa r t ment PLEASE ADDRESS REPLY TO CHRYSLER BUILDING 4 0 5 LEXINGTON AVE.,NEW YORK 17, N.Y. June 19, 19^6 Dr. S. A. Kehoe College of Medicine University of Cineinatti Eden & Bethesda Avenues Cincinatti, Ohio Dear Dr. Kehoe: The attached confidential memorandum of June 13, 19^6, addressed to the Board of Directors of the Lead Industries Association, is forwarded to you for your information and comment. Recently, I was advised hy an officer of the National Lead Company that UMW had already planned an industrial hygiene laboratory in Cin cinatti to undertake the investigation of industrial hazards, particu larly in connection with lead. Very truly yours. JHS:dc K* 0014706 LEAD IN D U STRIES ASSOCIATION 420 LEXINGTON AVENUE NEW YORK 17, N. Y. CONFIDENTIAL To the Board of Directors of the Lead Industries Association: June 19L6 SUBJECT: MEMORANDUM OF VISIT WITH MISS LILLIAN ERSKINE OF THE _________DEPARTMENT OF LABOR, WASHINGTON, D.C., June 6, 19U6 In a- recent visit to Washington I learned of a development that Td.ll perhaps be of no news to the members of the Board but confirms the existence of a trend of some years standing that has deep implications for our industry. I had the pleasure of meeting Miss Lillian Erskine of the Division of Labor Standards of the U.S* Department of Labor, who has had long experience in labor matters and has been on the staff of the Department of Labor for sometime. Miss Erskine has studied lead poisoning for many years and has recently been asked by the Secretary of the Navy to study the hazards of the shipyard workers when painting steel vessels with various paints, and expects to issue a report on the subject in the near future. As I understand it, the study relates entirely to the employment of union labor in painting naval-vessels. I volunteered to give Miss Erskine all the information we had to assist her in her study. . Miss Erskine told me privately of her alarm over the huge funds various unions in the United States were now gathering to expend on safety and health projects. She said that plans were actively Tinder way to make this a most important'union activity as a means for higher wages and that the success of John L. Lewis in establishing a health fund would be copied by other unions. She felt that the projected safety and health plans of the unions would study occupational hazards of workers. One of the first indus tries to be singled out for attention would probably be the lead industry, to establish a differential wage scale in favor of the lead worker in mines, smelters, refineries and manufacturing operations. She felt, therefore, that industry should give serious consideration to this impending problem now with a view to meeting it constructively, I told her we had run across a similar situation in New York State where the unions had attempted to establish a differential in favor of the steel workers demolishing structures that had been painted with red lead, the workers to assume the hazard, without pro tective devices and escribed to her how the problem was finally solved by cooperation with New York State officials. Miss Erskine said the unions were now looking for personnel to run their laboratories and safety programs and were prepared to pay high salaries for the direction - as high as $>5>0,000 per-year to tempt the right man which they could easily do from the huge funds they will collect. -2 The labor movement described by Miss Erskine is one that we shall probably meet in growing degree as time goes -on. Miss Erskine also verified the unfortunate situation which now pre vails in that the Department of Labor and the U.S. Public Health Service do not appear to be seeing eye to eye on health matters. The Department apparently wishes to establish its own officers and laboratory facilities to study labor conditions and establish labor standards, even though this, would involve needless duplication. Incidentally, to show how far afield the De partment has been going, it is interesting to me to learn from another direction that in an investigation of lead burning hazards recently completed in Virginia, the Department, of Labor did not call in the U.S. Public Health Service but asked the New York State Department of Health to undertake the surveyl * ' Secretary, HE 0014708