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OCR Page 1 of 325-42
CITY OF NEW YORK
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH
OFFICE OF THE COMMISSIONER
LOUIS I. HARRIS, DR. P. H., M.D.
COMMISSIONER
June 6th, 1928
Mr. C. B. Lee, President,
United States Radium Corporation
535 Pearl Street,
New York City.
My dear Mr. Lee:
For several days an officer of this Department,
delegated by me to make an inquiry into the hazards attending
the use of radium compounds in painting watch dials and other
work connected with the handling of radium has failed to secure
from your company the list of employees who have been engaged
in the handling of such radium compounds.
According to press reports there have been thirteen
deaths all told among persons who have been employed by you,
and five other cases that are now suffering from the effects of
disease acquired in the process of painting watch dials. We have
been referred to Dr. Frederick B. Flinn of Columbia University
for information. I am not satisfied that the information that
I can obtain from Dr. Flinn will be adequate for the purpose of
our official inquiry to ascertain whether Section 337 of the
Sanitary Code is being violated or likely to be violated in so far
as your company may be concerned.
In the Journal of the American Medical Association,
under date of December 18, 1926, Dr. Flinn stated a conclusion
which apparently does not coincide with the facts as since
determined. He expresses the judgment that the painting of
luminous dials did not involve an industrial health hazard. In
statements that certain persons have made to me it has been alleged
that Dr. Flinn has not changed his viewpoint notwithstanding the
faot that a number of deaths and cases of most serious illness
have apparently been traced to the handling of radium compounds as
employed by your company.
This letter is to advise you that in the interest of
public health and for the protection of workers who may be exposed,
I deem it my duty to obtain first-hand information with respect to
the questions of danger that are involved in the work that you are
now conducting or are likely to conduct at 535 Pearl Street.
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