Proceedings of a conference to determine whether or not there is a public health question in the manufacture, distribution, or use of tetraethyl lead gasoline / Prepared by direction of the surgeon general.

  • United States. Public Health Service.
Date:
1925
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Proceedings of a conference to determine whether or not there is a public health question in the manufacture, distribution, or use of tetraethyl lead gasoline / Prepared by direction of the surgeon general. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    will lay before you the results of these studies. This matter that you are called together to discuss, is, I think, a very important one—one of the most important questions up before the public to-day. It has an economic bearing, possibly has a health bearing, and its commercial relations may be very extensive, indeed. { This is largely conjecture. None of us knows much about it as yet, so the purpose of this conference is very important, and your deliberations will take, I assume, some days. I can spend only a moment with you, but I am pleased to have had the opportunity to express my appreciation of your assembling here to discuss this question. The Cuatrman. First, I want to express my appreciation to those gentlemen who have accepted an invitation to come to this con- ference. It is unnecessary for me to enter into any detailed ex- planation as to the purpose for which you have been asked to come together or the importance of the outcome of the conference. It 1s, however, perhaps advisable to say a word in the beginning as to the reason for inviting you to a conference and the object which we hope to gain as a result of your advice and counsel. | The Public Health Service, particularly through its division - which has to do with the study of problems relating to industrial medicine, has long been interested in lead poisoning in the industries and has made some investigations along this hne. We were there- fore interested two years ago when we learned that one of the large corporations in this country in its endeavor to increase the efficiency of fuel used in internal combustion engines was experimenting with certain lead compounds to be used in commercial gasoline. A little later on the question of an investigation as to the effect of these compounds came up, and after a conference with representa- tives of the Bureau of Mines it was determined, in view of the fact that the Public Health Service had no funds available for the pur- pose, that the investigation should be made by the Bureau of Mines. Early in the winter I received letters from several gentlemen who had been interested in the matter, inviting attention to the potential dangers in the general use of tetraethyl lead and suggesting that a conference be called to consider the matter. After correspondence with everyone engaged in such investigations, so far as we could as- certain, it was determined that a conference at that time would be somewhat premature in view of the fact that none of the investiga- tions had been completed. Upon completion of the preliminary report of the Bureau of Mines, and after a conference with Doctor Sayers and the staff of the Hygienic Laboratory, I decided that it would be advisable to hold a conference as soon as practicable, and found that the report of the medical committee working at Columbia University, together with