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
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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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    the. development of war gases. I got a very capable man and put kim in charge of the sanitary supervision of production. Very con- siderable amounts of phosgene and mustard gas were produced in America during the war; and we did not poison the people who made it. Such substances can be handled so that you do not kill people. On the other side we have a list, according to different counts, of between 11 and 15 men killed by tetraethyl lead. They died in a terrible form of insanity. Furthermore, somewhere between 50 and 100 other men have been poisoned more or less severely. It is prob- able that not all the cases have been reported. I was surprised this morning not to hear the Whiting plant in Indiana mentioned, because [havea eer here from a man whose son was severely on in the laboratory at Whiting, Ind. This indicates that we have not heard of all the cases. Chemists and engineers surely have no desire to kill people; and if that is the case, then there is something about the manufacture of tetraethyl lead, something about its lack of odor, something about its other qualities, which renders it. peculiarly liable to result in severe poisoning. That is;a very important, point. Chlorine, although a very irritating substance, seldom causes death. Hydrogen sulphide, although as toxic as cyanide, seldom kills a laboratory worker. The reason is that chlorine is so irritating and ‘hydrogen sulphide smells so bad that a man gets out of the way. I am going to read one or two communications showing how people are poisoned by tetraethyl lead. Before I do so I want to say that I am not combating what was said this morning about the special merits of lead for automobiles. I am simply trying to show that there is another side. I have asked some of the chemists, my colleagues in Yale University, and I have found that lead is not by any means the only substance which, on theoretical grounds, or even on the basis of experiments, can be used as an antiknock medium. I find from the engineers in the mechanical engineering laboratory of Yale University, where they work quite largely on automobiles, that they have a feeling that even with the present fuel it will be possible to develop engines that will make use of the rapid form of explosion, which is called detonating. I do not offer an opinion on that matter. I simply quote it as showing that men who are competent to have an opinion believe that there are other chemical and engineering possibilities. The subject of masks was mentioned. I had a good deal to do with the developing of the gas mask during the war. It has now been developed into the Burrell mask, now used in industry. I think it is very doubtful whether you can permanently protect men by means of masks under industrial conditions. A man will put on a mask and go into ammonia, but you can not depend on masks