White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1934-09-13
PEAR POISON STORY
NOT TRUE TO FACTS

find the following letter, written BIZ
Norman Anglin of Hanford to the
Wenatchee Daily World, of great in
terest. AS Mr.. Anglin says, the fruit
growers are having an extremely hard
time, and for any individual or insti-
tuition in the state of Washington,
which largely depends upon fruit for
it's wealth, to misrepresent the facts of
such an incident makes their lot only
that much harder.
The letter was publihed by the Wen
atchee World last week, and the
Spokesman, through the courtesy Of
Mr.. Anglin, republishes 1t in these
columns:
I wish to express my appreciation for
the position taken by your paper In the
issue Of August 20, and also your edi-
torial, with regard to the death of Mrs
Ersa Kinsman by so called arsenic poi
soning.
also have before me another Wash
ington paper with headlines smeared
across the front page which read as
I follows: Woman Dies of Fruit Spray
Poisoning" and the article begins by
saying, One Seattle woman is dead
and another is near death, and several
are in serious condition after eating
pears covered with arsenic spray pur-
chased at local markets.
i. How Washington paper, who must
have the interests of the State at
heart, and must also know that mil
lions of dollars are brought In to the
state through the fruit industry, can
make capitol with such an article is be-
yond me.
have been connected with the fruit
business either in growing or otherwise
for the last Is years, and have seen
two deaths which might be termed ar
senic or lead poisoning. In both in
stances these were men who had
sprayed orchards for years, and did not
realize the necessity of careful hand
ling of arsenate lead. I venture to say
that either of these men took more
arsenic into their systems every day
than could have been obtained from
the box of pears from which Mrs Kin
sman was supposed to have been poi
soned.
Previous to 1924 we never thought of
either wiping or washing pears or ap-
pies for the markets, and in the fruit
districts people seldom paid any atten-
ton to the amount of spray residue on
fruit, especially when eaten out of
hand.
I do not wish to leave the impress
sion that one can not be poisoned by
arsenic, neither do mean to say that
fruit should not be cleaned before be-
ing marketed, the fruit grower should
be required to meet the regulations of
the U. S. Pure Food Department as
well as any other manufacturer of
foods, but what do mean to say is
that the American people are great for
fads, and just now arsenic poisoning
is the fad
It seems to me that if the officials
and newspapers could realiz the
gest industries in the state, and especi-
ally at a time when the fruit grower is
already burdened with load almost to
the breaking point, they would be
little more careful about passing out
such information, and could probably
have found the actual cause of Mrs
Kinsman's death.
I am a brother of Mrs. Kinsman and
attended the funeral services in Seat
tie August 49, but did not know of the
articles in the papers until I arrived
home the following day Mrs. Kinsman
was taken to Yakima by her daughter
and buried the same day I arrived
home. Had known in time, I would
used my influence in having a post
mortem examination made which
would probably have revealed the ex-
act cause of her deatht.
Here are some facts which were
given me by my mother Mrs. Emily
| Anglin, sister, Mrs. Lem Reed of Sc
attic and Mrs. Kinsman's daughter
Mrs. Verda johnson of Selah, Wash.
Eleven years ago Mrs. Kinsman had
an operation for ulcers The operation
was quite serious and a silver plate
had to be used to protect the incision.
While the operation was successful, she
had always been bothered at times
with gas irritation, and as she had had
an attack of stomache trouble two or
three days previous to eating the pears,
the superstition was that the ulcerous
, condition had returned. Some of the
papers left the impression that Mrs.
Kinsman ate eight unwashed pears at
one time, while her daughter who
brought her the pears, informed me
that her mother ate four pears over
period of day and half, one un-
washed and the remainder were pealled
before being eaten.
Mrs. Kinsman became i'll by an at
tack of nausea and vomiting, and was
taken to the hospital shortly after.
During one of these attacks OF vonit-
ing she made this statement to her
daughter, II feel just like something
has broken in my stomach" Shortly
after this the vomiting developed into
hernOrrhape from which che ,,ovar