Document zd4eZ3R1zNMpQ0O8kB2Kk7X5m

N18411 International Lead Zinc Research Orgnztn. Si/a'Uj HLoMaj .-y CfA>it*/ o-i.&v-c^ jts, ic.f .H- 7- C5 <3^ ?*?*! OC5 u Jero;ne F. Cole, Sc.D,, Manager Environmental Health International Lead Zinc Research Organization, Inc. 292 Madison Avenue New York, New York 10017 Bear Jerry: I have been slow, indeed, to respond, in any manner, to your letter of April 9, 1973 to Doctor Suskind, concerning an action of Dr. Hammond. I don't know whether or in what manner Dr. Siiskind has replied to you, but I should like you to know that your action in this matter is, in my opinion, highly praiseworthy. In some respects, in this natter, Hammond is a relatively inexperienced man, while the influence of his Chairmanship of the National Academy of Science may well have given him a false idea of his own position in respect to this problem. I say this to you, not as a matter of incautious unwisdom on my part, but rather in recognition of your well-balanced view of such matters as this. This is not, despite Dr. Hammond's responsibilities to the National academy of Science, a wise action on his part. You may or may not know that his appointment to the Chairmanship of this Committee was regarded as a virtual necessity, not wholly justified by his publications. I was asked to deal with some of the problems of the Committee, it being fully understood by me and by others, including members of the Academy Staff, that I should not be a member of the Committee. I did influence the Report considerably, and not by subtracting from its critique of the situation. On the other hand, I did not and would not comment in any way publicly on the Report. Doctor Hammond and I do not and are not likely to now, or in the near future, to see eye to eye on various aspects of the lead problem. On the other hand, he is, I believe, a good and useful member of Kettering's Staff, and you can understand clearly, I believe, that I do not criticize Br. Suskind's appointments or other activities as the Director of the Laboratory. I shall simply do what I can with Dr. Hammond and other members of the Staff to contribute valid information on the lead problem and as the chips fall where they may, the position of the Laboratory will not be an ambiguous one. I cannot go along entirely with the Washington group, who, in my opinion, up to the present, have wasted little time in carefully considering the entire correctness of their position. We shall have a ' fairly prolonged period of having to deal with certain very practical matters of fuel shortage, and out of this, I suspect, will come a somewhat more realistic approach to some of the alleged hazards of leaded gasoline. At least I have some reason for hope that this may be the case. KiT 0014660 I have returned to the Laboratory, ana now, a very snort time ago, I have begun really to work instead of merely trying to know what goes on. I expect to publish a series of papers, after gathering up and studying our batch of accumulated data, and thus to get back, into the swim in this field. With kind.regards, Sincerely, Robert A. Kehoe, M.D. Professor Emeritus of (Occupational Medicine