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    "localId": "75729903",
    "label": "Letters Received to Ms. Josephine Koteck, December 5, 1944",
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    "id": "75729903",
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    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Letters Received to Ms. Josephine Koteck, December 5, 1944",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75729903",
    "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_0003488.pdf",
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    "ocrText": "COPY FROM\nCOLUMBIA UNIVERSITY\nCOLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS\n600 WEST 168TH STREET, NEW YORK\nDELAMAR INSTITUTE OF PUBLIC HEALTH\nDecember 5, 1944\nMiss Josephine Koteck,\n272 Beale Avenue,\nLeechburg, Penn.\nDear Miss Koteck:\nMiss Hilda Gunther told me about the\nletter you wrote about the fear your family has that you\nwere poisoned by radium and that you might pass this\npoison condition on to the other members of your family.\nMiss Gunther called me up and I have\nlooked over your record. We first examined you on\nJune 21, 1943 for pre-employment and again on March 9,\n1944 for a yearly examination. At your pre-employment\nexamination your blood picture was not as good as it\nshould have been but on March 8, 1944 your blood picture\nhad improved very much. You showed a hemoglobin of 83.5%;\nwhite bloodcount---8,050; red blood count---4.62. The\nx-ray picture was negative. My test to see whether you\nhad any radium in your body showed that you were also\nnegative and that you have not ingested any of this\nmaterial. Therefore, you cannot have radium poisoning.\nThere is no danger whatever of anyone\ncontracting radium poisoning from you because you are\nnot radioactive and have no radium in your body. Even\n1f you had radium in your body you cannot poison a person\nwho comes in contact with you at any time or in any manner.\nFurthermore, your clothes would not poison anyone who\nhandled them or whose clothes came in contact with your\nclothes. Because of these facts you can assure your\nmother or any other member of your family that there is\nno danger of their contracting radium poisoning from you\nby coming in contact with you personally or handling your\nclothes in any manner what so ever.\nI have seen practically all the cases of\nradium poisoning which have occurred in this country. I\nhave been in contact with the family of the girl who had\nradium poisoning and have never known of anyone who felt\nthey had a chance of contracting radium poisoning. I\nhave examined the children of girls who had radium poison-\ning who married after they left the occupation and have\nCOPY FROM\nCOLUMBIA university\nCOLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS\n600 west 168TH STREET. NEW YORK\nDELAMAR INSTITUTE OF PUBLIC HEALTH\nMiss J. Koteck\nDecember 5, 1944\nnever found a case of radium poisoning among the babies.\nUnfortunately when the early cases of radium\npoisoning came out in the newspapers there were a large\nnumber of false statements made and the public did not\nunderstand the situation at all. I can assure you that\nif I thought that you or any other girl had a chance of\nbeing a radium case I would notify you myself. I have\nexamined girls continuously who are working with the\nmodern protective method such as you were working under\nand I have never found a girl yet who has contracted\nredium poisoning under these conditions. The girls who\nhad radium poisoning were girls who use to put the brush\nin their mouth continuously and when I took the girls\ninto a darkroom from the paint room you could see the\n1luminous paint all over their lips. As you know no\ngirl puts a brush in their mouth these days and 1f they\ndo they are discharged immediately. I have a number of\ngirls who I have examined for over twenty years and who\nhave worked continuously with radium paint and at no\ntime have they showed any indication of radium poisoning.\nMiss Gunther is one of these girls and I have examined\nher personally, each year, for approximately twenty years.\nI trust that this will make you feel better\nand also settle any fears that your family may have. If\nyour mother wants to ask me any questions I would be very\nhappy to have her write to me direct and I will give her\ndirect answers to any of these questions.\nYours sincerely,\nFrederick B. Flinn\nDirector of Industrial Hygiene.\nFBF:GD"
}