Letters Received to Arthur Roeder [A. Roeder], June 27, 1924

HARVARD UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH DEPARTMENT OF PHYSIOLOGY 55 VAN DYKE STREET BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS June 27, 1924. Mr. Arthur Roeder, United States Radium Corporation, 30 Church Street, New York City. Dear Mr. Roeder: In regard to your letter of June 24, the points brought up are all matters which we have either discussed with Mr. Viedt or with yourself. 1. In regard to #1, in the case of a substance such as radium which is deposited in bone there is no reason why, given sufficiently long exposure and time for deposition, that bone disease may not develop many years after exposure, provided bacterial infection is permitted. 2. In regard to the second point, I doubt whether any amount of investigation of other plants will bring out real facts unless it is made discerningly. Bet me illustrate. Several years ago I was called in consultation on a very important situation which proved to be manganese poisoning. The condition was practically unknown in this country though there were many users of manganese and millers of manganese dioxide. Under protest from certain members of the Company involved, protective measures were instituted. The condition disappeared and after a short timelwe published the details of the disease we had observed. When we gave a thorough account of the medical facts of the situation we at once got reports of manganese poisoning from firms which had written us previously that no such condition could exist in their works nor ever had existed. They had had cases of manganese poisoning which had been diagnosed as locomotor ataxia and ordinary types of nervous disease, and they had not realized this until their attention was called to the possibility of a new disease entity. No amount of inquiry of a general nature will bring information in regard to the incidence of bone necrosis in other plants applying radium paint and handling radium unless the request for information is accompanied by a thorough explanation in medical terms of what has happened in your plant. When the first cases of aplastic anemia due to radium occurred their cause was not instantly appreciated, and it was only after five fatalities had taken place that this phase of radium damage was understood and workers with radium began to carry X-ray films and pay attention to the warning they give.