Document vkrNpG8qrQ6D7GG1pyw3dKGm

TH E UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA ! \ AN CO UVER 8, CANADA DEPARTMENT OF GEOLOGY December 2nd, 1963* Dr. Robert A* Kehoe, |M.D., Department of P reven tive Medicine and I n d u st r ia l H ealt h , The Ket t er in g Labor ator y, Un iversity of Cin cin n ati, Cin cin n ati, 19, Ohioi Dear Dr. Kehoe: j Thank you ver y much fo r your l e t t e r of November 19th . 1 1ap p r eciat e ver y much your t ak in g th e time out t o drop u s a lin e when you have been even b u sie r th an u su al because of th e death of your a sso c ia t e , P r o fe sso r Prank P r in c i. When I was in New o r k I lear n ed of t h is u n for tu n ate happening - I b elieve from Mr. Fcw ler of th e Lead Research Association . j most im portan t, The one poin t which you r aise d in your l e t t e r i s of cou rse Our rem arks aboqt th e t o x ic it y of le ad r e su lt e d frcm a qu ot at ion frcta Profe- sso r Artn ur Vernes in h is book "Mesure e s Medecin e", P ar is 19U3, ch ap. XIV, page 278 - an En glish t r a n sla t io n bein g approxim ately as fo llcw s:- MCne remark h as t o be done about th e u se of le ad (a c e t a t e ), poison ous even in dose of th e order of a few hundreds of m illigr am i one must u se i t with gr eat p r ecau t ion . i n cu rren t p r a c t ic e , and when i t s,t u r n t o be u sed cctnes, we make on ly 2 sh ot s per week, a t 2 or 3 days d ist an ce , sep ar at ed by j sh ots of platin um or iridiu m given durin g the oth er four d ays." j t would n ot lik e you t o th in k t h at we had c a r e le ssly in se r t e d t h i s ccm parison , and, sh ould I be u n fa ir ly r epr esen t in g P r o fe sso r Vern es, I would c e r t a in ly be gr a t e fu l fo r your h elp in cor r ect in g th e m at t er . The meeting in New York was most su c c e ssfu l in t h at Dr. Kurland and D r .jBan t a, and many oth ers concerned with h ealth problems h ad a most u se fu l ph r t in th e program, t ogeth er w ith a g r ic u lt u r ist s and ge o lo gist s from many p a r t s of ijiorth America. % hope t h at seme of th ese paper s ar e pu blish ed in due cou r se, and t h at some usefujL co- oper ation may r e su l t . s 00533 D r . R ob er t A. Kehoe 2 Knowing your in t e r e st in the m atter of le ad you may be in t e r e st e d t o know t h at r e ce n t ly we have had sane le t t u c e s subm itted t o u s fo r a n a ly sis, arid, alth ough th eir "n or m al" le ad con ten t seemed t o be of th e order of from 2 t o 10 p a r t s per m illio n (oven - d r ied ), we did get one sample running a pr od igiou s 250, and se v e r al running in th e ran ge of from 50 t o 100 p a r t s per m illio n * I liiave been wondering whether t h is h as any sign ific an c e or n o t . The Medical O ffice r who subm itted t h ese sam ples sert them from a d i s t r i c t which he h as been in v e st igat in g fo r many y e a r s, and which con t ain s abnormal numbers of d ath s from can cer . I am a fr a id we are imposing perh aps too fr e q u e n t ly on your good n at u r e, but as you have surm ised, i t i s extrem ely d i f f i c u l t t o make advan ces in t h is f i e l d when onefe knowledge i s la r ge ly ge o lo gic a l. Kin dest p er son al r egar d s, Yours sin c e r e ly , mm11/ Harry V. Warren, P r o fe sso r , Department of Geology. HVW/ w, g 00534