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    "localId": "75722793",
    "label": "Letters Sent to S. Bryan, May 25, 1928",
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    "id": "75722793",
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    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Letters Sent to S. Bryan, May 25, 1928",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75722793",
    "collections": [
        "Safety Light Collection",
        "Records Related to Radium Dial Painters"
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    "seq": 3,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "document",
    "url": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/SLC/Radium/SLC_0001339.pdf",
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    "ocrText": "May 25th,1928.\nDenver Radium Service,\nDenver Golorado.\nAtt'n Mrs. S. Bryan\nDear Mrs. Bryan:\nI must apologize for the delay in replying to your\nletter of May 16th, and I will now try to answer to the best of my ability\nyour inquiry.\nWe are quite aware that the undue publicity, which has been\ngiven to the suits brought against us by former employees, has caused a\ncertain amount of embarrassment to you in the way of inquiries from your\nclients using radio-active materials. We do not feel that there is any-\nthing in this suits which justifies any alarm in the medical use of radium\nchloride, but appreciate that this idea is rather difficult to always get\nacross to the small-town physician, who may be using this type of medication.\nYour best answer is that radium chloride, for the use which you prepare\nsame, is listed in \"New and Non-Official Remedies\", and that you do not\nbelieve that such would be the case in the event that the medical profession\nhad found that its use was hasardous. On the contrary you can cite\nreference after reference in the literature where radium chloride has been\nused internally by the medical profession with beneficial results in innumer-\nable cases, and to my knowledge there has not been reported one single\nbad affect. In fact there are citations in the literature that definitely\nshow that radium administered intravenously is eliminated at quite a definite\nrate, and in fact certain investigators in this field have strived to\nintroduce radium into the system in a form whereby it would be retained for\na longer period of time than is normally the case with the soluble salts.\nAs far as the situation in the luminous material industry\nis concerned we must consider that quite apart from the intravenous use of\nradium under medical supervision. It has not been definitely proved to date\nthat radium is primarily the cause of any of the conditions which have been\nreported, although there on record some 6 or 8 cases here a condition has\nbeen reported, with the possibility that radium was a contributory factor\nin either aggravating or hastening the primary condition. Let me call your\nattention to the fact that there has been employed five or six thousand\ngirls in this industry throughout the world, and when you consider that out\nof this number only some 10 or a dozen girls have possibly suffered, you\ncan hardly consider the situation as accute as is being portrayed by the press.\nWhere trouble has existed it has been ascribed to the practice, commonly\nemployed by all girls in this industry, of pointing the brushes with their\nlips, a practice which has been for some time past been strictly forbidden.\nUnder these circumstances we don't anticipate that there will be any current\ntrouble occuring.\n-2-\nI would suggest that you be very cautious regarding any statement\nthat you might give to the press on this subject, for unless you are backed\nby very substantial authorities, you will only get into altercations, which\nwill prove to be rather annoying, and possibly embarrassing to yourselves.\nAs you probably realize the press would be only too glad to have this thing\nthrashed out in the papers, rather than in the Courts, the proper place for\nsuch transactions.\nWe trust that these few remarks will serve as a basis for your\nreplying to inquiries on this subject.\nVery truly yours,\nVice President.\nHHBarker :RH"
}