Missouri Lead Company provided milk to children and adults, 1934

This short clip shows the dairy owned and run by of the St. Joseph Lead Company, in Missouri providing subsidized milk to the children and adults in its mining district. Until the 1970s, it was common for the lead industry to providing free or low-cost milk to their workers. For over a century, milk was thought to counteract lead poisoning. However, scientific studies have now shown that milk should not be regarded as a prophylactic agent in a workplace setting. Wrote Dr. Robert A, Kehoe in JAMA in 1955 "... The fault is that [it was] often used in lieu of the adequate measures of environmental control that are dictated by considerations of sound industrial hygiene and by decent regard for the safety and welfare of human beings. It is to be expected that industrial management should favor and be unduly impressed by the magic of simple and relatively inexpensive medical prophylactic procedures rather than face the stern and often costly necessities of safe process design and plant engineering." In his article, MISUSE OF EDATHAMIL CALCIUM-DISODIUM FOR PROPHYLAXIS OF LEAD POISONING, Robert A. Kehoe, M.D., Cincinnati http://jama.ama-assn.org/content/157/4/341.full.pdf ). Missouri has been the nation's major source of lead for approximately 90 years. St. Joseph Lead Co. is one of the major corporate enterprises that came to Missouri to mine lead. It does not matter if a person breathes in, swallows, or absorbs lead particles, the health effects are the same; however, the body absorbs higher levels of lead when it is breathed in. Within our bodies, lead is absorbed and stored in our bones, blood, and tissues. It does not stay there permanently, rather it is stored there as a source of continual internal exposure. Lead poisoning can happen if a person is exposed to very high levels of lead over a short period of time. When this happens, a person may feel: Abdominal pain, Constipated, Excessively tired, Headache, Irritable, Loss of appetite, Memory loss, Pain or tingling in the hands and/or feet and Weak. Because these symptoms may occur slowly or may be caused by other things, lead poisoning can be easily overlooked as their cause. Being exposed to high levels of lead may cause anemia, weakness, and kidney and brain damage. Very high lead exposure can cause death. A person who is exposed to lead over time may feel: Abdominal pain, Constipated, Depressed, Distracted, Forgetful, Irritable, Nauseous/Sick. People with prolonged exposure to lead may also be at risk for high blood pressure, heart disease, kidney disease, and reduced fertility. The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) have determined that lead is probably cancer-causing in humans. This clip is from the 1934(?) US Bureau of Mines film (made in cooperation with the St. Joseph Lead Company), THE STORY OF LEAD MINING AND MILLING. The entire film shows mining and milling operations in Southeast Missouri after diamond drills have located a lead vein. The film also shows the dairy, school, hospital, and offices of the St. Joseph Lead Company. The entire film is available at the US National Archives in Maryland.

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