Document NGgZZqEVLpVoLdvZ0DgyB5kk8

120 Txcrnly-fifth National Safrly Congress Icwn distillation are frequently combined with those from coal tar to form valua ble chemical combinations. Tbty have been placed on the .market so rapidly that medical science haa been unable to others of the danger. Even if removed from the poisonous gas at that period, the damage actually done by the gas may result to permanent physical damage. determine their physiological effect opott the health cd man. We have known that Infection some of these chemicals are opable of creating changes in the liver, and only recently in a city in Massachusetts one of these newer products caused the death of two employees and a battle to retain life among two others. The skm is a protective covering of the body against infection and is ex tremely efficient as long as it remains in tact. but allow h to be broken or punc tured. introduce bacteria, and a battle ensues between the offensive agencies of infection and the defensive powers of the Carbon Monoxide body. The winning of such struggle may determine the presence or absence of You remember the adage. "Where incapacity. Infections are common there is smoke, there is fire.** We might throughout industry* but two types are edd to that. "Where there is fire there is particularly prominent -- infection result carbon monoxide.** ing from anthrax and infection among This odorless but poisonous gat may meat packers and fishermen. occur in any industry or in any home, but Many of oar fur. hair or wool-covered the poorer the ventilation the better the animals may contract anthrax. The germs chance of producing physical incapacity. of that disease defy the ordinary methods Since the advent of the motor car. whose exhaust pipe may poor forth a* high as 6% of carbon monoxide, wc arc all exposed to that gas. particularly in crowded cities. The ordinary passenger car liberates about two cubic feet per of sterilisation and may linger on hides, bristles or hairs for long periods of time. Tanners, wool sorters, and basr or bristle woikers may introduce the anthrax spore beneath their skin and undergo much physical suffering and sometimes death. emirate, and one can readily estimate the physical damage that may be done H such a motor is allowed to ran within the doors of a poorly ventilated garage or shop. Fortunately, serious cases of such poisoning are not common among those Infections are frequently found among meat and fish packers and those engaged in deep sea fishing. Although death rarely occurs, the toss of fingers, hands and nasty septic wounds are the result. Punctured wounds, cuts, abrasions, employed in public garages, but many of burns aod scratches are potential avenues those employees are likely to complain of entrance for bacteria which would of headache and faintness at the end of a seem to be waiting everywhere at all day's work, especially in colder weather when doors and windows remain closed. In the sled industry, where gat is used as the heating ageney in the blast fur nace*. care must be used to prpvide proper ventilation. Within the mines, times for such a break in the skin. Early medical treatment might often save later surgical interference, not to mention the accompanying discomfort, incapacity and perhaps the loss of as essential body part. workers arc warned to allow enough time Summary following blasts for the escape of this gas. Being a colorless, odorless and taste less gas, quick of action within the hu man body, the manifestation of the very first symptom may be too late to save a workman from partial or total incapacity or perhaps death. Because the exposed person suffers first from motor paralysis, he may be unable to help himself or even to warn 1 feel that the time has come when an employer must demand of a manufacturer the answers to two questions: 1. How will your product affect my business? 2. How will your product affect the health of my employees? That employer is entitled to honest answers based upon sufficient chemical and physiological examinations of the questionable product. That manufacturer Occttfvfioiial Diseases 121 should be held responsible for the tils produced by the use of his product and unless he can guarantee its safety, h has uo place in industry* Too many lives have been lost or jeopardised by too little knowledge of a prodoct** action upon those who handle h. The incidence of lost time due to ill ness and injury in industry has been greatly lessened by the many agencies working along lines of. safety. When in dustry has been made fool-proof by the substitution of non-toxic preparations for those now found to lie harmful, and when each employee is hnhued with the Idea that constant thoughtfulness and care arc most necessary for the maintenance ol health and happiness, then, and not un til that idealistic stage has been reached may vigilance and perseverance to main tain and preserve health, limb and life be lessened. Pre-Employment Examination as an Aid to the Control of Industrial Diseases By DR. W. C. TEMPLES Medical Dimeter, Coming Glass Works, Corning, N. Y. We may well ask whether or not phy death rate doe to tuberculosis. In (act, sical examination is of any value to the world at large, rather than limit the dis in the treatment of aU epidemic-type diseases that have so far been eradicated, cussion to the control of industrial di the examination of patients to determine seases. In the eonserration of life and health much progress has been made In the eradication or control of such diseases as occur in epidemic form,* as well as that type of disease which is not truly the severity of symptoms and the im provement has been of foremost value. Knowing that the average span of life has been increased eight years in the last quarter century and assuming that the epidemic; but occurs in such frequency above mentioned factors have had some that genera! health programs are neces bearing on it, could we decry the value sary. Much has been dons to control of physical examinations for the general such disabling illnesses as heart disease, population? arterio-sderesb, kidney disease and dia If we know that examinations made by betes; and something has been accom insurance companies and their associating plished in the control of morbidity, which examining institutions, the ditties tun by tends to, at least, make people happier the United States Public Health Service, through good health, even though an in aod the great mass of physicians, who aU creased span of life is not gained. carefully examine their clientele, have Physical examination hat played a large role in accomplishing these things, be been of value m the control of disease, may we not assume that examinations fn industry w31 help control the incidence cause it was through physical examination and physical observations that investiga tors were led to exert themselves to find a remedy for the cause of such condi tions. Smalhpox b no longer prevalent, doc to such observations, which led to its control by vaccination. Malaria and yellow fever have bees brought largely under control, and knowledge b now available in the control of venereal di and extent of industrial disease, particu larly when the life expectancy of 'In dustrial workers is (ess than that of the general population? In fact on April 14, 1936, at the na tional Conference on Silicosis and Similar Dust Diseases, called by the Secretary of Labor, Dr. R. R. Sayers ol the United States Public Health Service said. "Pre seases, if the proper physical examination liminary and periodic physical and roent and laboratory methods are used to arrive at a diagnosis. We are all familiar with the results obtained in decreasing the genological examination should be made of all employees engaged In industrial proceases where there is a potential if