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    "title": "Other, no date",
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    "collections": [
        "Safety Light Collection",
        "Records Related to Radium Dial Painters"
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    "ocrText": "v\n87.4 You are doubtless familiar with certain conditions which have been described in\nthe literature recently, that have been ascribed to the accumulation and reten-\ntion of radium element in the system by people employed in the application of\nself luminous material to watch, clock dials etc.\n38. II assume Doctor that you are familiar with the method by which it is claime /\nto\n4\n(the particular girls or operators afflicted ingested the material.\nhave\nan\n39. You are probably further qware that the conditions hich is ascribed to have they were\n44\nIresulted from this type of work, first described around 1925, and that + was\nwere\ndescribed in the light of being 8. new discovery.\n40.\nIn view of the facts as developed let us say -1925, did you then consider the\n41 internal use of radium chloride befraught with any immediate or possible latent\nhazards.\n41\nDid you considerthat there was any analogy between the ingestion of radium, such\n46\nas\nwas claimed to have been done in the case of these girls and the administration\nof radium attoride internally under medical supervision\n4R. Are you familiar with the articles by Dr. Harrison Martland, occuring in vol. 85,\nand volume 92, k.p. 466 to 73 0;552 to 559, 1929, issues of the\nJournal of the A. M. A. These articles outline Dr. Martland's analysis of the\n47 situation in Jersey. In these articles Dr. Martland states briefly that ale\ngirl\nmight ingest anywhere from 15 to 215 22 of radioactive substances per week.\nmiso grawn\nA simple calculation will show that in the evont 3 We take average, .\nthe\n115\nmicrograms\nper week that an operator would waste approxima, tell $11.50 worth\nwhen\nam\nconnection\nthat\nof material per week.\nThis hardly seems plausible, nasmuch, as these girls\nwere only getting from $18 to $25 per week.\nLet us make another assumption\nthat each operator waited 50 micrograms of radium element per week, and that with\n250 girls working this would mean that during the course of a year 630 milligrams\nof radium element would be lost, or approximately 1/3 of the total amount of material\nwhich was used for this purpose, - this on the face of it could not hasse been too\nunder thic orporation was may\n43. Referring to the work of Flinn, the Journal of the A.M.A. Dec. 18,1926: Flinn\nestimates that an operator who practiced the habit of pointing the brush with her\nlips might ingest approximately 0.5 grams a week, which would contain approximately\n48\n7.2 micrograms of radioactive substances.\nWhile his estimated amount is\napproximately 1/2 of the estimated minimum of Dr. Martland, still it seems much\nmore withingeason.\nDisregarding the fact of whether or not the practice of\npointingyche lips was ever common practice or a recognized one, assuming that\none had knowledge at the time these girls were employed , 1915 to 1923 that\nthey were pointing the brushes with their lips, and that they were ingesting weekly\n7.5 micrograms of radium element, precipitated as the sulphate - would you have\nconsidered that therp was a possibility that these grils would have absorbed radim\nthem\nset\n?\nen radon which would remain in their, system for a period of years - say 5 to 10?\nGive your difent\n44.\nHad you known that the girls were absorbing weekly 7.5 mc. of radium element would\nyou\nhave considered that there might have any possible injury resulted from such\n49\ningestion either current or latent?\nF\nFor your information allow me to\nstate that in the proparation of self luminous zinc sulphide the common practice\nconsists of taking the properly prepared sinc sulphide, wetting this with water, and\nthen adding the required amount of radium in the form of a soluble salt in solution.\nto this mixture there is added a small amount of an alkaline sulphate salt such as\namonium sulphate, with the object of precipitating the radium as a sulphate,\nsuch\nprecipitation taking place upon the surfaces of the crystaline zine lehide.\nBy such a procedure there is a wide distribution of the radium over the surfaçe of\nassilthate\nof the zine sulphide radium is present the"
}