{"id":31643,"date":"2016-12-16T12:30:16","date_gmt":"2016-12-16T16:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/?p=31643"},"modified":"2017-06-29T14:34:25","modified_gmt":"2017-06-29T18:34:25","slug":"but-what-about-robert-kehoe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/2016\/12\/but-what-about-robert-kehoe\/","title":{"rendered":"But what about Robert Kehoe?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recently, Smithsonian.com published a brief article on the history of leaded<\/p>\n

\"But

Dr. Robert Kehoe, Kettering Laboratory, UC, date unknown<\/p><\/div>\n

gas.\u00a0 The article, seen here, http:\/\/www.smithsonianmag.com\/smart-news\/leaded-gas-poison-invented-180961368\/<\/a>, is informative though by no means exhaustive.\u00a0 The story begins in 1920, 55 miles up I-75, in Dayton, Ohio, at the General Motors Research Corporation.\u00a0 An engineer there, Thomas Midgely, and his boss, Charles F. Kettering, had developed an anti-engine knock additive called TEL or tetraethyllead.<\/p>\n

At the time, \u201cengine knock,\u201d which was due to a malfunction between the fuel, air, and ignition explosion in a car\u2019s cylinder, was at best a mild annoyance causing a light knocking sound and at worst a problem capable of destroying an automobile engine. Midgely\u2019s solution was to add TEL to gasoline which would raise the combustability, or octane, of an engine lessening its chances of malfunctioning.<\/p>\n

It worked.\u00a0 Which was all well and good, but TEL contained lead, and as people have known for ages, lead isn\u2019t particularly good for us.\u00a0 In fact it\u2019s rather deadly.\u00a0 The author goes on to discuss the outcry that erupted after several workers died after being exposed to TEL on a regular basis.\u00a0 A federal study was authorized in 1925 and it was decided that the amount of risk associated to every day exposure for most people was minimal and the production of leaded gasoline continued.\u00a0 It was not until the 1970s that growing evidence over leaded gas\u2019s danger became evident.\u00a0 In January, 1996, the U.S. Clean Air act, officially banned the sale of leaded fuel for use in vehicles.<\/p>\n

So why is the Winkler Center for the History of the Health Professions so interested in this Smithsonian.com article?\u00a0 The answer to that is really found in what we feel is the large portion of the story the author, for completely understandable reasons, was unable to include.\u00a0 That story belongs to Dr. Robert A. Kehoe.<\/p>\n

The Winkler is the proud keeper of the Robert A. Kehoe Archives, 150 cubic feet of materials documenting the life and career of the collection\u2019s namesake.\u00a0 It was Robert Kehoe\u2019s advocacy for TEL in the late 1920s that helped Charles F. Kettering\u2019s Ethyl Corporation continue the production of leaded gasoline.\u00a0 Kehoe believed that presence of lead in humans and other organisms was normal and that exposure to low lead levels was not harmful.<\/p>\n

Robert A. Kehoe<\/strong>\u00a0was a 1920 graduate of the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, who, as a toxicologist, would become a leader in\u00a0occupational health and the preeminent medical proponent\u00a0of the use of\u00a0tetraethyllead\u00a0as an additive in\u00a0gasoline.<\/p>\n

While an instructor in the UC Department of Physiology in 1924, he was hired by\u00a0Charles Kettering\u00a0for\u00a0General Motors\u00a0to examine health issues related to tetraethyllead\u2019s production. In 1925, Kehoe became the chief medical advisor of the Ethyl Corporation.<\/p>\n

\"But

Kettering Lab, c. 1930<\/p><\/div>\n

In 1930, a new laboratory funded by the General Motors, Ethyl, and DuPont corporations, the Kettering Laboratory of Applied Physiology, opened at UC with Kehoe as its first director. It was the first of its kind, i.e., the first university-based laboratory devoted to the toxicological problems peculiar to industry.<\/p>\n

Kehoe\u2019s theories and the famous \u201cKehoe Paradigm\u201d helped to define the limits to industrial responsibility for lead pollution and poisoning for decades.\u00a0 He was convinced of the idea that manufacturers and distributors of industry could self-regulate rather than being restrained by legislation as it related to environmental control.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In retrospect, it might be easy for some to view the career of Robert Kehoe as an apologist for big business.\u00a0 The Winkler Center\u2019s Kehoe Collection<\/em> however sheds light on a research-based physician firmly convinced of his scientific findings.\u00a0 It also shows a career not only devoted to the defense of leaded gasoline\u2019s use, but also one that insisted lead be kept out of children\u2019s toys.\u00a0 And finally, Kehoe\u2019s career was one which shaped, and stressed, the development of industrial safety and public health in the United States, especially as it relates to occupational health protection.<\/p>\n

<\/a>

Oral history interview done with Dr. Kehoe. To view the oral history simply click on the image and download the interview.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure the author of the Smithsonian piece had an article word-limit as well as other parameters which made talking about Kehoe an impossibility, but there may have been other factors.\u00a0 Currently the Kehoe Collection remains unprocessed.\u00a0 For an archive, the Smithsonian article drives home the importance of making collections accessible and open to the research public.\u00a0 Had the Kehoe Collection been properly processed and available for research, it\u2019s quite possible his name would have entered the story.\u00a0 The Winkler Center is currently seeking funding to arrange, digitize, and make accessible the Robert A. Kehoe Collection.\u00a0 Even in its current state, the collection is an invaluable one.\u00a0 Once processed, its academic research possibilities will be rife.\u00a0 We look forward to providing this resource to those studying business, medicine, occupational health and a variety of other subjects.<\/p>\n

Works Used<\/p>\n

Kehoe, R. A.\u00a0“Occupational medicine and public health.”\u00a0Public Health Reports<\/em>.\u00a01961<\/p>\n

Kitman, J.\u00a0“The Secret History of Lead.” The Nation.\u00a0\u00a017 August 2009.<\/p>\n

Wikipedia contributors, “Robert A. Kehoe,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia,<\/i> https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/w\/index.php?title=Robert_A._Kehoe&oldid=745119252<\/a> (December 15, 2016).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently, Smithsonian.com published a brief article on the history of leaded gas.\u00a0 The article, seen here, http:\/\/www.smithsonianmag.com\/smart-news\/leaded-gas-poison-invented-180961368\/, is informative though by no means exhaustive.\u00a0 The story begins in 1920, 55 miles up I-75, in Dayton, Ohio, at the General Motors … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":464,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73,13,282],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hsl-libnews","category-uclibraries","category-winkler-center"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/464"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31643\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}