Tarr, Omar

Tarr Omar Tarr papers in possession of Douglas Janney. 

W. H. Hartford, Fells Point, Baltimore, and Chromium II (Tarr) Omar F. Tarr obituary, Lewiston Evening Journal, May 2, 1955 (Tarr) interviews with Douglas Janney and Jacqueline Tarr Dempsey (Tarr s grandson and daughter-in-law), June 4, 2008. 

The target that proved to be Hueper s undoing was chromium. His attention was drawn naturally to this industry, where a cancer hazard had been identified before the war. Hueper s work on chromium began before he joined NCI, in t946, when he was asked to consult at the Baltimore plant of the Mutual Chemical Company. At this point he crossed paths with two men who epitomize the opposite poles of the chemical industry s response to environmental hazards Anthony Lanza of Metropolitan Life and Omar Tarr, Mutual s technical director. 

Hueper s consultation work was the first step Mutual took in 1946 to address the cancer problem. He advised the company to study the German experience and undertake an epidemiological study.23 Omar Tarr undertook a visit to the German chromium plants, where he consulted with their managers and medical personnel and was advised that the association between... 

The executives of Mutual Chemical Company, late 1940s. From left George Benington, president Jerome Dohan, Jersey City plant manager Harry Heller, Baltimore plant manager Omar Tarr, technical director. (Courtesy of Douglas Janney.)... 

Sixteen months later Omar Tarr was dead of lung cancer.40... 

Within weeks, air pollution was eliminated from the planned chromium study. This decision was made on December 29, when Omar Tarr and Mutual Chemical s chief counsel Theodore Waters met with Townsend and Bloomfield to discuss the plan they had been given on November 18. Tarr and Waters asked for deletion of all consideration of off-site air pollution from the plan the request was granted on the spot, and the scope of the study was limited to the industry s workers.16... 

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