This day in history: Health concerns were growing over the Bunker Hill smelter, particularly for children living nearby

From 1975: Idaho health officials had grown so concerned about lead contamination around the Bunker Hill Co. smelter near Kellogg, they were contemplating banning children from living within a mile of the smokestacks.

“There’s a question as to whether preschool children ought to be living there,” an Idaho official said. “The data’s not clear, but there are some suggestive trends.”

A study from 1974 “found that 98 percent of the children nine years old and younger, living within a mile of the smelter, had abnormal lead levels in their blood.” However, a subsequent report found “no evidence” of actual health damage, although studies continued.

Residential areas within a half-mile had already been evacuated. Bunker Hill bought the houses, and about 60 families were relocated.

From 1925: Mrs. C.C. Gerrard, the wife of a Eureka, Montana, physician, was released from Spokane’s city jail, when federal and city authorities concluded she was not part of a big dope ring, as previously asserted.

She was in possession of cocaine and morphine when she was arrested, but when her husband was summoned to Spokane, he said the drugs were for a “ chronic illness from which she has been suffering for years.” Police were finally convinced that neither she, nor J.J. Masek of Eureka, who was also arrested, were selling dope.

Police previously believed that Masek was the drug ring’s money man, posing as a banker. Yet he was, in fact, the president of a Eureka bank. He and Mrs. Gerrard were still facing state vagrancy charges because police believed they were sharing a hotel room. When news of their arrest arrived in Eureka, Masek’s bank had to close following a run on the bank.

Masek’s lawyer denied that his client was staying in a hotel with Mrs. Gerrard. He was staying in the home of a Spokane friend, the lawyer said. The Spokesman-Review reported that Dr. Gerrard “appeared cheerful and unconcerned about the whole affair.”