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    "label": "Letters Received to Editor, June 20, 1925",
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    "title": "Letters Received to Editor, June 20, 1925",
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        "Safety Light Collection",
        "Records Related to Radium Dial Painters"
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    "ocrText": "RECEIVED\nBailey Radium Laboratories\nIMPORTANT\nWM. J. A. BAILEY, Director\nJune 20, 1925\nResearch\nLaboratories and Office\nConsulting\n336 Main Street\nProduction\nRADIUM DEATHS\nEast Orange, N.J., U.S.A.\nSTATES\nTo the Editor:-\nRADIUM CORP.\nConsiderable publicity has appeared the past few days\nin the papers with regard to so-called \"Radium Deaths\" at a. plant in\nOrange, N. J., where the women use luminous paint on watch dials. As\nthere is no basis for these statements we wish to present the facts to\nyou with respect to the use of radium internally. That several women\nhave died in the course of several years in a plant that has employed\nseveral hundred women is no proof of the harmfulness of radium. The\nsame percentage of women probably die in the same time in every plant\nof any kind out of the same number of women employed.\nWe have no connection whatever with the plant at Orange, except-\ning that we are in the radium business and supply ragium for use both\ninternally and externally. As the writer has had many years exper-\nience in this field he considers that an authoritative statement re-\ngarding radium should be printed by you to balance the absolutely ri-\nridulous and untrue statements that have already been made by doctors\nwith little or no experience in this field.\nWe have for sometime been supplying physicians throughout this\ncountry and abroad with a radioactive solution known as radium water.\nOver 300 doctors are already on our books and practically all of them\nhave been using radium water in a large number of cases. All of them\nhave repeatedly reported excellent results in serious conditions that\ndo not yield to any other kind of treatment.\nThe American Medical Association has endorsed solutions as thera-\npeutic agenoies as will be noted in the New and Non-Official Remedies\nissued by the Association, This great organization comprising more\nthan half of the doctors of the country is certainly not giving its\nofficial sanotion to internal radium treatment if it were harmful in\nany way. As a matter of fact the American Medical Association will\nnot pass a radium preparation as of sufficient strength unless it con-\ntains at least two micrograms of radium, or the equivalent thereof, as\na daily dose. This is more radium than one will find in an armfull\nof watch dials.\nWe find the following statement in New and Non-Official Remedies\npublished by the American Medical Association: \"Daily administration\nof radium emanation solution containing 1.5 milliouries gives results\nin selected cases of arthritis deformans.\" On this basis a person\ntaking this daily dose over a period of one month would have taken in-\nto the system more radio-activity than any women could get from paint-\ning all the watch dials she could handle during her whole lifetime.\nYet the London Radium Institute has treated hundreds of patients with\nthis dosage for periods of many months and report a large percentage\nof cures.\nHot Springs, Saratoga, Mt. Clements and all the other well-known\nspas and springs of this country and Europe contain radium in very ap-\npreciable amounts.\n-2-\nThase who have spent a month at any of these places have taken\nmore radium into their system than a person painting watch dials could\npossibly absorb in a year. Yet the U. S. Government makes some very\nredical claims for the curative results of these springs because of\ntheir radioactivity as will be seen in the pamphlets issued by the De-\npartment of the Interior and also by the U. S. Railroad Administration,\nboth entitled \"Hot Springs.\"\nThe latter states: \"Within recent years radium has become known\nas a powerful healing agent. Many cases formerly considered hopelessly\nincurable have yielded readily to its activity *** the waters (at Hot\nSprings) are radioactive *** and more than ninety per cent of those\nwho have taken a full course have been either cured or benefitted.\"\nThe former states *the waters may reasonably be expected to give\nrelief in the following conditions - gout, rheumatism, neuralgia,\nchronic BrightZ's Disease, catarrhal conditions of the bladder, steril-\nity, chronio malaria, many chronic skin diseases, some forms of anemia,\ntoxemias and conditions of defective circulation and in some forms of\ncardiovascular disease with increased tension in the blood vessels.\nThe general tonic and recuperative effects are marked in conditions of\ndebility and neurasthenia.\"\nWe enclose a reprint of & new item that appeared recently regard-\ning the springs in the little town of Estreys, France, where no case\nof cancer or other tumor has ever been known, The amount of radium\nemanation given here (37 microcuries) is equal approximately to $7.40\nof radium in each quart of the water (based on the present price of\nradium in ampoules). No doubt the inhabitants of this town drink\nquarts of this water during each week and certainly have ingested\nthousands of quarts in their lifetime, yet instead of all being dead\nwe find that few are probably ever sick and none have ever had a cancer\nor tumor. The amount of actual radioactivity they have taken into\ntheir systems in a lifetime is probably greater per each person of\nfifty years of age than you will find on all the watch dials in exis-\ntence today.\nThe treatment with radium internally in small amounts has been\ncommon practice in Europe for nearly twenty years and has become wide-\nspread in this country during the past decade. Large radium clinics\nhave been established for many years in Germany where several million\npatients have been treated. Complete data on this will be found in\nFalta's book \"The treatment of internal diseases with radioactive sub-\nstances.\" - and in Paul Lazarus' book \"Radium Biology and Therapy\".\nIn both of these books reports of splendid cures in thousands of cases\nare given.\nAny number of doctors in this country have injected as high as\n100 micrograms of radium element weekly in patients, with excellent\nresults, in some of the most obstinate conditions. A person would\nhave to paint watch dials for many months to absorb what these doctors\nhave injected each week in innumerable patients.\nEven our own bodies are radioactive. In the average person of\nsay 150 lbs. there is about 3 ounces of potassium, which is a radio-\nactive product emitting rays exactly like radium. Without this pot-\nassium in our body life would quickly become extinct, yet it is poss-\nible to take the potassium from the system and in its place use rad-\nium solution and thus maintain life. In fact radium has been inject-\ned into the blood in several cases with as splendid results as blood\ntransfusion. It is hoped that the injection of radium will thus en-\ntirely obviate blood transfusion in the future,\n3-\nNo one has worked longer or with greater amounts of radium than\nhas Madame Curie. For over 25 years she has toiled unceasingly in her\nlaboratory and today she is not only much alive but reported recently\nto be in excellent health. Some day this famous woman will die,\neither from old age or some other cause, and then we will learn that\nshe died\"a victim of radium, a martyr of science.\" If she has lived\na;1 these years around tremendous amounts of radium it would seem that\npersons handling minute amounts in painting watch dials should not die\nso readily.\nDr. Leman, who died recently heralded as a \"martyr to science\"\nwas not in robust health when he first took up radium work. From an\nintimate personal knowledge of this great scientist we know that he\nwould have died probably sooner were he in any other occupation. His\ngreat teacher, MacCoy of Chicago is still alive and heal thy; Prof.\nBoltwood of Yale, Prof. Duane of Harvard, Dr. Failla of New York, Dr.\nField of the Radium Institute, Koenig, Whittemore and Withers of Col-\norado, Viol and Cameron of Pittsburgh, Simpson of Chicago, and scores\nmore of men who have used large amounts of radium daily for years are\nstill alive and healthy.\nWhile large amounts of radium can be so concentrated on a tumor\nor canoer as to destroy the tissues, 80 can sunshine through a piece\nof glass. Because some people occasionally get & severe and even\nfatal sunburn, we raise no popular clamor against the sun! So with\nradium. In small amounts taken internally it has been shown, not in\n& few cases, but in hundreds of thousands of cases, to be/beneficial\nto the human body as the sun is to plants.\nClinical experience has shown for example, that never has a\nsingle case of cancer developed in persons who were on a course of rad-\nium water for any reasonable period of time. This verifies the ex-\nperience in the little town in France mentioned above. Today leading\nmedical men are claiming that in radium water we have the nearest ap-\nproach to a successful human rejuvenation known to science. Even\nSteinach, when his gland operations and X-ray failed to actually re-\njuvenate, fell baok on radium water and obtained remarkable results.\nIn anemia a rapid increase in red blood cells is noticed soon after\nstarting on radium water, sometimes as many as a million. High blood\npressure is readily reduced and in arteriosclerosis the arteries are\nquickly softened. In arthritis and all rheumatic affections radium\nhas been used internally in thousands of cases with splendid success.\nIt is to be regretted that physicians with no experience whatever\nin the field of internal radium therapy should make such ridioulous\nstatements as have appeared regarding a so-called \"new radium disease.'\nIt is passing strange that nothing like this has cropped out in the\ncase of hundreds of thousands of people who have visited the Spas of\nAmerica and Europe for years or who have been treated at the radium\nclinics and in private practice for many years in this country and\nabroad with far larger doses than one could get from a carload of\nwatch dials. It is a pity that the public has been turned against\nthis splendid curative agency by the unfounded statements that have\nbeen appearing regarding radium deaths from luminous paint on watch\ndials. If the radium in this paint causes death, then everyone who\ngoes to Saratoga, Hot Springs, Mt. Clements, etc. and remains there a\nmonth takes more radium into their system than workers on watch dials\ncould absorb in years and by the same analogy should all be dead.\n4-\nBut people claim their health improves at these springs, the\ngovernment claims that many cures are effected at them, leading\nphysicians the world over claim thousands of cures with small amounts\nof radium taken internally -- and likewise anyone absorbing small\namounts of radium through their work on watch dials #ill improve\ntheir health rather than injure it.\nThe writer will personally take in one does all the radium that\nis used on all the watch dials produced at the Orange plant or any\nother plant in a month.\nCordially yours,\nBAILY RADIUM LABORATORIES,\nWagasanly\nDirector."
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