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    "localId": "75718906",
    "label": "Letters Received, April 29, 1924",
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    "title": "Letters Received, April 29, 1924",
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        "Safety Light Collection",
        "Records Related to Radium Dial Painters"
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    "seq": 5,
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    "ocrText": "HARVARD UNIVERSITY\nSchool of Public Health\nDepartment of Physiology\n55 Van Dyke Street\nBoston, Massachusetts\nMr. H. B. Viedt,\nApril 29, 1924.\nUnited States Radium Corporation,\n422 Alden Street, Orange, N.J.\nMy dear Mr. Viedt:\nI have been able to obtain an impartial opinion on Dr. Barry's\nabilities and training and find them excellent.\nWe may, therefore,\ngive his opinions as to the cases a good deal of credence.\nFrom material which we have been able to dig out of the\nliterature here and piece together with your experiences in\nNewark it would seem that radium is the probable cause of the\ntrouble.\nWe have not been able to find any direct cases of\nbone necrosis from exposure to radium, but we have, curiously\nenough, discovered several instances of bone necrosis due to\nX-ray.\nYou will remember that Dr. Barry thought he showed us\nchanges in the bone of the jaws of Miss Smith and of Miss Schaub,\nindividuals who had not had teeth pulled.\nI am fortunate in\nbeing able to get here most excellent opinions upon the X-rays\nof these cases which Dr. Barry has sent me.\nIt seems to us that\nif radium affects the bones of the jaw in individuals whose teeth\nhave not been pulled it should affect other bones in the body --\nat least to some degree -- and the most likely area in the case of\nall your workers is the hands.\nI have communicated with\nDr. H. L. Alexander, 1019 Broad Street, Newark, who is an\nextraordinarily able and reliable person with whom I have been\nassociated during the past year in work for the New Jersey Zinc\nCompany, and have asked him to make X-rays of the hands of the\nindividuals you bring to him.\nI enclose a copy of my note. I\nrecognize, of course, the need to move cautiously in the matter,\n(2)\nbut it would be a great help to us if you could have X-ray\nphotographs made of the hands of your chemist and his assistant,\nof your forelady, Miss Smith, and of any of the other girls at\nthe work whom you can trust and whom you can induce to make the\ntrip.\nIf we can have three or four others it will be a boon\nto our needs.\nAlso, I should like it very much if you would\ninduce Dr. Lehman to go.\nIf you telephone to Dr. Alexander he\nwill be ready to make appointments at your convenience.\nThere seem to be two possibilities in regard to the\nradium:\nfirst, that the rays are causing the damage; and,\nsecondly, that radium itself, absorbed in minute quantities\nthrough the skin over long periods of time is deposited in\nthe bones.\nSince it apparently behaves like calcium this point\nof deposition seems highly probable to us.\nOnce deposited in\nthe bones, my associates who have been working with radium feel\nthat it might exist for a good while and continue to slowly\nexert harm.\nYou will recollect that I felt that in the case of\nthe jaw necrosis cases what had occurred was that something had\ninterfered with the nutrition of the jaw bones, cutting off the\nblood supply and leaving a devitalized tissue.\nDr. Barry's\nX-rays show areas of rarefication which would occur if bone died\nand was slowly absorbed.\nWhen, in the case of the jaw, such\ndevitalized bone is exposed to the action of the mouth bacteria\nit is non-resistent - simply rots away.\nLacking this exposure\nit would probably exist for years as a somewhat porous and\nweakened structure but not necessarily the cause of any trouble.\nShould such an idea be correct you will see at once that changes\nof the sort shown in Dr. Barry's X-rays should appear in the\nbones of the hands.\nI trust that this explanation will suffice\nto show the impor tance of getting the X-ravs we desire.\n(3)\nYou will recollect that the Life Extension Institute found\nnothing in their examinations which indicated the possibility\nof industrial poisoning. There is a certain amount of indication\nthat this opinion was given without a proper appreciation of the\npossibilities. We find, in reports published from England, that\nradium workers show an increase in the lymphocytic cells of the\nblood as an early symptom of generalized damage from radium. It\nis a curious fact that this finding in the blood was reported in\nseveral of your girls by the Life Extension Institute and that\nthe possible cause of it was not understood. Indeed, the Institute\nsimply indicated that the findings should be watched further.\nWhen we join forces with you next week we shall wish to take\nblood specimens (this will simply be a minute drop of blood from\nthe skin) from as many of the people who are working in your\nplant as we can get hold of, including those who are directly\nexposed to Undark and those who are not.\nWe shall then chase\ndown this finding with particular care.\nWe shall want to see\nMiss Carlough again, and if it is possible for you to obtain X-ray\nplates of her hands they will be of the greatest value to us.\nSince the taking of an X-ray photograph is but the matter of a\nmoment I should think you would have no difficulty in arranging\nthis.\nWe will arrive at the Robert Treat Hotel late Tuesday\nevening next, and will wait there until we hear from you\nWednesday morning.\nOur program for the next couple days will\nfollow out whatever arrangements you have made -- that is, we\nknow that we must chase down Mrs. Kuser, we shall want to get\nour blood specimens, we shall want to see Dr. Alexander's\nX-rays, and we shall want to go again to the plant.\nUnder separate cover I am sending you some dental X-ray\n(4)\nfilms.\nI wish that you would place these here and there in\nthe room where the girls are doing the painting.\nIt is desirable\nto find out whether they fog.\nI should suggest doing this\nduring three or four days before we come and leaving the films\nin place until we get there.\nI am sending a copy of this letter to Mr. Roeder and hope\nyou will write me at once if there is any part of it which is not\nclear.\nVery sincerely yours,\nCecil K. Drinker\nCecil K. Drinker, M.D."
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