Shortage of Chlorine Should Not Affect Public Health Source

Shortage of Chlorine Should Not Affect Public Health Source: The Science News-Letter, Vol. 40, No. 7 (Aug. 16, 1941), p. 103 Published by: Society for Science & the Public Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3917913 Accessed: 29/11/2009 14:46 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=sciserv. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. Society for Science & the Public is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Science News-Letter. http://www.jstor.org
SCIENCE NEWS LETTER for August 16, 1941 103 PUBLIC HEALTH Health Service Orricers Go To Bolivia to Test Vaccine Dangerous European Type of Typhus Fever Always Present in Highlands There, Facilitating Trial TW top-flight disease fighters of the U. S. Public Health Service, Dr. R. E. Dyer, assistant director of the Na- tional Institute of Health, and his col- league, Dr. N. H. Topping, have gone to La Paz, Bolivia, to make an exten- sive, thorough trial of the anti-typhus fever vaccine on which the safety of British and American troops and even the outcome of the present war may depend. The possibility that American troops may have to go into typhus fever re- gions of South America for hemisphere defense, as well as plans for aid to Brit- ain which include supplying her with the typhus fever vaccine, make it vitally imperative to know whether or not this vaccine works. Previous attempts to test the vaccine in European countries where typhus fever is a constant threat to life have failed because of the war abroad. Large batches of the vaccine, made according to the method originated by Dr. Herald R. Cox, of the U. S. National Institute of Health, were sent to Hungary, Ru- mania and Spain. Reports as to the re- sults of the trials have either been in- conclusive or have failed altogether to reach officials in the United States. So the U. S. Public Health Service is go- ing to make the tests itself under con- ditions that will leave no doubt about the results. Enough vaccine for 5,ooo persons has already been sent to Bolivia, where pub- lic health authorities and officials have promised full cooperation for the tests. The director of the state health depart- ment laboratory will probably work with Dr. Dyer and Dr. Topping. These tests present one of the most difficu!t problems in disease-fighting. For each person vaccinated, there must be one person unvaccinated who lives under exactly the same conditions as the vac- cinated person, living in the same house, even sleeping in the same bed if pos- sible, and thus equally exposed to the typhus fever germs which are spread by body lice. The dangerous European type of louse-carried typhus fever, which kills from one-fifth to about three-fourths of those who get it, is always present in the highlands of Bolivia and certain other South American countries, often flaring to disastrous epidemics. If an epidemic should break out in regions where Dr. Dyer and Dr. Topping have vaccinated one-half the population, they will have a quick answer on what the vaccine is worth, from comparing the number of cases, if any, among the vac- cinated with the number among the un- vaccinated. There is always so much typhus in Bolivia, however, that they will get an answer even without an epi- demic. It will take longer, maybe as long as nine months, Dr. Dyer said, but Bo- livia offers the best opportunity in the world today for field trials of the vac- cine. It cannot be tried in the United States because we do not have any European type typhus fever here. The Cox vaccine is the best of all those that have been prepared to fight typhus fever, the Public Health Serv- ice believes, because it has given the best results in animal protection tests and because it can be manufactured on a large scale. While Dr. Dyer thinks he will need to vaccinate only 5,000 people in Bolivia to determine its value, he can get vaccine for ioo,ooo if he needs it. Science News Letter, August 16, 1941 PUBLIC HEALTH Shortage of Chlorine Should Not Affect Public Health THE safety of your drinking water, your swiming pool, and the cleanli- ness of the drink you obtain at a road- side hot dog stand are being protected despite the shortage of chlorine. Correspondence between Dr. Thomas Parran, Surgeon General, and the Di- rector of Priorities, E. R. Stettinius, Jr., reveals that there is plenty of chlorine to take care of the needs of public health. The only danger to the supply for water works and sanitation seems to lie in an unfounded fear that a shortage will develop. Acting on this fear, some buy- ers are overstocking, thus tying up con- tainers. Lack of these containers may slow up the filling of new orders. Public Health uses of chlorine have been put on a par with defense needs by the Office of Price Administration and Civilian Supply. Adequate supplies are insured for water purification, sewage treatment, sanitation, refrigerant gases for existing equipment, slime control in industrial plants, preparation of prod- ucts for medicinal use, preservation and processing of food products. Not specifically mentioned in this pro- vision is the use of chlorine by many soda fountains, roadside stands, and bars for the sterilizing of dishes and glasses where steam or boiling water is not readily accessible, Chlorine is also widely used on dairy farms and city milk plants to kill bacteria in containers and to steril- ize the hands of milkers and the udders of the cows before milking. For these purposes, a dry form of chlo- rine-sodium hypochlorite or calcium hypochlorite-is used, not the liquid chlorine commonly used as a bleach as well as a disinfectant. The OPACS is depending on distribu- tors of this dry chlorine to see to it that these important public health needs are adequately filled. Public Health officials know of no substitute which will kill the germs and not endanger humans. They warn that without careful sterilization of milk containers, drinking glasses and dishes, there would certainly be a spread of many diseases carried in this way, including colds and influenza, tuberculosis, typhoid fever and para- typhoid fever, septic sore throat, diph- theria and scarlet fever. Of the present production of chlorine, it is estimated that about 30? will go for defense. Only about 500 to 7%0 is needed for sanitation. It has been put up to the housewife, the laundry and the paper manufacturer, who use chlorine as a bleach, to cut down their use of chlorine so that neither public health nor defense uses need be curtailed. Science News Letter, August 16, 1941