Document peqJXqnbO48Y9xx8x34946bxD

SV-8084 1 U S m t o" ' ESTABLISH ED 1802 E. I. du Po n t de N e mo u r s & C o mpa n y INCORPORATED W il m in g t o n 98, Del awar e EMPLOYEE RELATIONS DEPARTMENT MF.DICAL DIVISION August 23rd, 195^ Dr. Robert A. Kehoe University of Cincinnati The Kettering Laboratory Cincinnati, Ohio Att, Miss Harriet Hardy. My dear Bob: I have just received your letter of August 20th in which you make inquiry relative to the case of Dr. Substantially, here are the facts. D r * B B U ^ was one our Ph.D.'s who spent some time at the Chicago Laboratories during World War II in prepara tion to going to Hanford for the production of plutonium. He was in the Chicago Laboratories for a few months and during this time, there was a certain amount of wbrk done on beryllium. He went from the-University of Chicago Laboratories to the Hanford Plant and after the War returned to the duPont Company. About two years later, he developed a lung condition which in the beginning was a rather difficult thing to diagnosis because it was confused with tuberculosis. We sent him to Saranac Lake for a differential diagnosis and the diagnosisvas finally established as carcinoma of the lungs, from which he died. After his death, his wife presented a claim alleging that his carcinoma was due to radiation received at Hanford. Inasmuch as we had a complete check on every individual for every single hour or day that he worked and were able to refer to this and it showed no radiation exposure, the case was then dropped by a firm of lawyers up in New Jersey. Subsequent to this, she came to Wilmington, was given a job in our Public Relations Department, where I believe she still is. N5925 She turned her case over to a legal firm here in Wilmington and in view of the fact that radiation seemed to be out of the picture, somehow or other beryllium came in and it was at that time that we had samples examined for beryllium and eventually insofar as I know, the case was dropped. As far as we were concerned, we were convinced that neither radiation or beryllium had anything to do with his condition. Yours very truly MEDICAL DIVISION GHG- G. H. Gehrmann, M. D. Mdical Director t 0001531 August 20, 195a. Dr. G. H. Gehrmann, Medical Director E. I. duPont de Nemours and Company $ ,Wilmington 8 Delaware ' Dear Gehrmann: - You may know that Harriet Hardy has been working fo r some months getting together the case material on the beryllium problem. In the course of this work, which has been handled on a strict basis of professional confidence, she and an assistant (a Doctor Weil, who has since gone into another field of work) have visited all of or most of the points at which records of cases accumulated and have gathered the material together. The idea, of course, is a registry of all of the accessible material purely for medical information. Because of Harriet's complete trustworthiness, and the policies adopted by her in this instance to handle material properly, I was glad to give her access to our records. In the course of this she came across the case of a duPont research chemist on whom a lung biopsy was taken and sent here to Dutra. An analysis for beryllium was made. Sub sequently the man, whose name I believe was died of an adenocarcinoma of the left main bronchus, H a r r l ^ a w o u 1d like more information about this case and about any other experience you have had with beryllium, and I suggested to her that she write to you directly. If you hear from her you will know that she Is not intruding into something that is none of her business. Best regards* Sincerely yours, Robert A. Kelioe, M.D.