Document q8qydZn6YVXea4w7YkvoLJQq

LEAD INDUSTRIES ASSOCIATION 420 Lexington Avenue New York 17, N. Y. June 27, 19>6 M A N > * CD IOWDITCH omccTon or h e a l t h a mo s a f c t y James H. Steraer, M.1)., Lkdioal iiroctoi.* Haatman Kodak Cuapaqy 343 Htate Street Rochester 4, New York Tear Jim* You may recall ay letter to you ox" iiovooLer 1, 1 Red Johnstone, Bob Kehoe and Tom Shipman, with which was enclosed a Health Bulletin Ho. 3" put out by Br. vv, U. Gieseel to Harriet liardy, of Hi/ccupatlx>nal To ay great satisfaction, this resulted you and Tata* under dates of November 4th and 3 that Harriot wrote him even wore caustically, and lied, while he apparently wrote nothing to the ethical aspects of the man's activity Because of what seemed to me ply of reprints of the recent paper 3/21/S6), mainly for distribution to laneous individuals who 1 thought si: ters to Dr. uieaaol from , with copies to me. X judge t ms no copy of what she said, plain to me what he tiioujht of fjportanoe, X secured a substantial sup* Hazard" by Borawa et al. (J.A.M.A. ut also seat 00pies to some 25 wLsoeL* fc, among them lx. Cieesel. tiuite to ay an brought from your former copy of his unfortunate tho light of what X kaa Harriet when I saw her fail me when X think oi __ Z was permanently off his list) this letter of which a copy is herewith, along with another vdiioh he is enviously still distaributing. In and particularly after the misgivings voiced by , X find all this pretty distressing, and words tablets. However, for reasons which I iiope are made plain therein, X have replied to hr. Glessel only as per wy second enclosure, with the hope, as X have told him, that he will again hear from those so obviously better .qualified,, than Ip and-in-p .uncertain terms, I au sorry to have to burden sy good friends with this buck passing, but X think you will agree that it is the only proper thing to do# Sincerely, IfiiQtt I&olosures coi Dr. Hardy Dr. Johnstone Er. Kahoe^ Dr. Shipman' PSi lid you read the paper by Shlele et al. in the Hay Archives? He is a good man and X was not a little taken aback. 211 MIU3Y ST. OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH LABORATORIES HpuST<g a^T^AS Ph o n e CAp it o l 7-5708 INDUSTRIAL ENVIRONMENTAL Manfred Bowditch, Lead Industries Assoc. 420 Lexington Avenue New York 17, New York Dear Sir: CONTROL FOR: EMPLOYEE HEALTH THROUGH: "No substance is so toxic that it cannot be used--no substance is so non-toxic that it should be used without caution." These words by Dr. James Sterner, of the Eastman Kodak Company, have certainly again been proven correct in the case of E. D. T. A. I wish to thank you for the reprint of the article by Dr. Foreman et al, and I wish to request that you forward me any reprints you might have relating to E D. T. A. and the lead problem. I am sure that you have seen the recent papers by Manville and Moser, and by Shiels et al, from Australia, recently appearing in the A. M. A. archives of Industrial Health. INDUSTRIAL HYGIENE WITH: HEMATOLOGY BIO-CHEMISTRY TOXICOLOGY ENGINEERING AIR POLLUTION CONTROL RESEARCH PREVENTIVE MEDICINE BACTERIOLOGY The indiscriminate use of any chemical agent from aspirin to Prednisolone to Ethylene/- diamine*--tetracetic acid used to be condemned. I do not recommend the injudicious use or the prophylactic use of E. D. T. A. It is certainly a useful drug when used as indicated. Most of the potent and highly useful drugs used every day, such as, Quinidine, Digitalis, steroids. Morphine, Prodine have undesirable side effects. I am using E. D. T. A. in those workers with high urinary lead values (over .2 mgs. of lead per liter urine), some with and some without evidence of acute clinical lead poisoning. A routine urinalysis is performed before a man is placed on chelating therapy. If I were to find evidence of renal damage, I do not believe I would place that man on Ethylene-DiamineTetracetic Acid. So far that question has not arisen, and those men placed on oral E. D. T. A. therapy I have found no evidence of renal involvement. So far, I have placed thirty-two workers on E. D. T. A. therapy. In almost all of them there was an im mediate increase in urinary lead as determined on the chelated urine specimen. I realize that some of this urine may represent \increased lead absorption from the G-I tract. I use eight grams tablets daily for five days a week, with a rest day on Saturday and Sunday. Each man is given a potent vitamin-mineral capsule, twice daily to prevent trace element depletion. No man is allowed to take over 250 tablets during any one course of treatment, and he is not allowed to have more than one course of treatment per year. At the completion of each course of treatment a urinalysis is required, which so far have revealed no evidence of lower nephron damage, as determined by a routine check for albumin, sugar, blood, and a microscopic examination N22158.01 Manfred Bowditch 2 June 18, 1956 for red cells, white blood cells and casts. I do not believe that a patient with normally functioning kidneys will be dam aged by this type of oral interrupted E. D. T. A. therapy, at least X have found no evidence in any of ray patients up to this time. They are removed from lead exposure during treatment, and an all-out effort is made in the plant to pre vent further exposure when he returns. It is explained to management that the installation of adequate exhaust' ventilation at those positions where the workers show abnormally high lead values in their urine or where the maximum allowable concen tration in the air is constantly being exceeded, is of the utmost importance in preventing a recurrence of clinical in creased lead absorption or poisoning. The solution of the lead problem requires the cooperation of management, labor, engineering, industrial hygiene and medi cine. In the half dozen lead plants now following the program as outlined in the Occupational Health Bulletin No. 3, no cases of clinical lead poisoning have occurred since the inception of our program in 1952. I feel that these good results are not due to any one factor, but due to a combination of factors, using adequate preplacement examinations, correct placement of employees, enclosures of certain processes, adequate local exhaust ventilation, the routine use of iron by mouth to cor rect nutritional anemia prevalent in the South, removal of workers with high urinary lead values from sensitive employment positions, treatment of workers with high urinary lead values with E. D. T. A., while the cause of their increased lead absorption is being corrected, education of the workers to the potential health hazards involved, and due to cooperation with local and state health authorities. I thank you again. Please be assured of my interest in matters which affect the lead industries. WUG:bi O M. D Medical Director Occupational Health laboratories 211 Milby Street Houston 3, Texas