Smyrna times., 1954-03-25
TO DEDICATE
HASKELL LAB
DUPONT Booklet Tells How Co.
FulfiIls Responsibility To-
ward Public Health
LAB NEAR NEWARK

The story of 'how one American
company fulfills its responsibility
toward the public health was told
by Du Pont recently in a 32-page
picture booklet highlighting pro-
gram of industrial medicine going
far beyond periodic employee
medical examinations and even it's
protection of people in the manu-
facture, use, and transportation of
chemical products.
Du Pont medical research, the
company reported, is increasingly
concerned with investigations of
such diverse and challenging
areas" as fatigue, heart disease,
clothing comfort, and new thrapies
and techniques for meeting peoples
physical and psychological needs" ;"
Basing its activities on the pro-
position that injury and illness
must be stopped before they start,
Du Pont said its company-wide
staff of 166 doctors, 274 nurses,
and 102 scientists and technicians
operating in this field has as its
ultimate goal "a safer, healthier
u. S. industrial society,""
The booklet focuses on the start
ing point for much of the program,
the Haskell Laboratory for Toxi-
cology and Industrial Medicine,
Oldest of its kind in the United
States. 1t recently was provided
with new building and facilities
near Newark, Del, which are to
be formally dedicated March 30.
AS the booklet makes clear, the
laboratory's public obligations do
not end with determining whether
new chemicals may be safely in
troduced commercially or old ones
safely put to new uses. While
these studies are among its prim-
ary responsibilities, it's 23-member
technical staff teams UP with the
company's Medical Division and
physicians and engineers at its 70
plants to find answers to problems
of safety and health in the design
and operation of plants and equip
ment, the manufacture of chemi-
cal containers, and other phases of
company activity, as We'll as
broader questions of disease pre-
vention and individual comfort.
The booklet cites Pathological
studies made of nylon as an ex-
ample of exhaustive tests each new
product must pass before it is
marketed. Although the first who'll
ly man-made fiber proved harm
less on the basis of experiments
with animals, small pieces of n.y.
Ion were taped to the arms and
legs of 200 paid volunteers to see
if skin irritation would result.
Another 5000 persons tested n.y.
lon in actual wear before it was
sold Dyes and sizings were exam
ined with equal thoroughness, be-
cause early textile finishing mat
erials had been found to cause
dermatitis.
Even now, says the booklet,
nothing is left to chance to make
sure that nylon is something
which, with safety as we'll as pleas
ure, the skin loves to touch"
The rapid growth of scientific
!. knowledge and the almost daily
discovery of new uses for chemical
compounds complicate the RESPONSE
bility of company like Du Pont
in discharging its obligation tc
public safety. Furthermore, it is
sometimes necessary to keep ever
weil-established products under
ing Du Pont, took it og the mar.
AS a case in point, the Booklet
reports that well-known ant
widely used compound, during one
of its periodic examinations, was
found 20 produce a strange dis
order in laboratory animals, {
condition only recently recognized
by medicine. Although there never
been a report that the produc
caused similar disorders in human
beings, its manufacturers, incIud
ing Du Pont, took it off the mar
ket and banned it.
Haskell Laboratory's work will
test animals has built public pro
lection into chemical products a.
divergent as paint solvent ant
shampoo ingredients. 1t establish
ed the toxicity of DDT and dictat
ed rejection of the idea that i
might be used in insecticida
paints on the ground that child
ren, not inconceivably, might hcl
painted walls.
Other tests, meantime, demon
strated as harmless a materia