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'f Accident Prerention HeeatllttHh Conzuserrvraation Fire Pre ? Thirty~fir$t Year--The Pioneer Publication in U Field Safety Engineerin PLAINTIFF'S i# uThe Magazine of Safety39 with which his bees combined: Protection Engineering. Conservation end Sire prerention ! -t-- ARTHUR C. CARRUTHERS, Editor T C O. B. MEAD, Aset. Editor Wl'" jrf_gy Harry Armand, Asst. Editor . Swi...l ... ...... ^ VoL LXII, No. 5 CONTENTS November, 1931 WHAT THE EDITOR THINKS: Putting Our Shoulders to the Wheel ....... 269 The Kind of Christmas Presents That Help 269 Safety Has its Thanksgiving ...................... 270 ACCIDENT PREVENTION AND SAFETY: Has Development of Safety Codes Helped Accident Prevention in Industry?--By Cyril Ainsworth ...................................................... 271 Often There is a Better Way ..................... 274 One Million Miles of Safe Bus Driving--By Herbert \V. Hoover .................................... 273 Wood Products Company Operates over 400 Days Without an Accident ......................... 276 Proceedings of National Safety Congress .. 277 Some Representative Exhibits -- National Safety Conirrcss ........................................... 279 Education as an Essential Factor in the Pro tection of Children and Pedestrians on the Streets and Highwavs--By Albert W. Whitney ........................................................ 281 Safety for the Boiler--By G. E. Sams......... 282 Common Causes of Industrial Accidents--By L. L. Spencer ............................................... 283 Coal Mining Makes Excellent Safety Record 283 FIRE PROTECTION AND PREVENTION: Precautions Against Freezing of Fire Extin guishing Appliances .................................. Vocational Educator Advocates Courses for Fire Fighters ............................................... Fire Tests of Partitions ................................ Heating Plant Fires ......................................... Reducing Industrial Fire Losses ................. Blasting Caps Cause Many injuries to Chil dren--By George G.King ........................... 287 290 291 294 293 297 HEALTH CONSERVATION: Orderliness and Cleanliness in Mines--Bv J. A. Voss .................................................... 298 Rheumatic Disease Among Industrial Work ers ................................................................... 304 Curative Qualities of Violet Rays ................. 303 Sickness Among Male industrial Emplovees --By Dean K. Brundage .................... `.... 307 Men. Money and Sickness--By Philip I5. Jacobs ..................................... *..................... 308 Gas Hazards and How to Meet Them 311 What is Being Done to Protect the Eves of Industrial Workers--By Lewis H.Carris 314 Skin Diseases from Brazilian Walnuts ___ 316 . -:The Very Least an Employer Should Know About Dust and Fume Diseases--By Fred erick Willson, M. D....................................... 317 Published Monthly by Safety Magazine Publishing Corporation Publication office, 34 Crystal St, E. Stroudsburg, Pa. Editorial and general offices, 119 Nassau Street, New York, N. Y. ARTHUR C CARRUTHERS. President AUSTIN F. HANCOCK, Vice President HARRY ARMAND. Business Manager 0. B. MEAD, Secretary Contents of previous issues of 5o/rfy Engineering can be found by consulting the Industrial Arts Index in your library. Entered as Second Cass Matter January 7. 1930, at the post office at Last Stroudsburg, Pa., under the act of March 3,1879. SUBSCRIPTIONS; $3 a year in advance. In CanaJa, $3.SO. Foreign subscriptions, $4. Single copies, 25c tbc*mb+r< 19HI SAFETY ENGINEERING The Very Least an Employer Should Know 317 about Dust and Fume Diseases By FREDERICK WILLSON, M.D. Pretident, Willnon Product*, Inc., Readtrtf, Pa. HE harm wrought in industry by diseases due caught on the mucus membrane of the nasal and T to inhalation of dust and fumes is, as yet, not so welt recognized as are those visible injuries pharyngeal passages. Such large particles may unpleas antly dry the secretions, causing the workman to hawk caused by industrial accidents. Nevertheless, the emor spit, but the inconvenience occasioned is so marked ployer who has at heart the welfare of his workmen and that the nose and throat are soon cleared of these large the best monetary interests of his company should wish particles of dust. In other words, large dust particles to have some information on this subject, that he may continue a source of local irritation instead of lung irri not err through ignorance of the danger of dust and tation. fumes or of the liability under the law which he must always face. Although industrial respiratory diseases are not in cluded in Workmen's Compensation Acts in most states, employers are in no sense relieved thereby from their duty and responsibility. Probably one of the most in formative of recent opinions bearing on this subject is that of Judge Cutler sitting in the Supreme Court of the State of New Jersey. Judge Cutler said: "It was the duty of the defendant company to exer cise reasonable care that the place in which it set the deceased at work, and the system or method adopted by it for doing the work, should be reasonably safe for the plaintiff, and free from latent dangers known to the defendant company, or discoverable by an ordi nary prudent master, under the circumstances. It was also the duty of the defendant company to exer cise reasonable care and skill to provide safe ma chinery and appliances in which the deceased was em ployed, and in keeping such machinery and appliances in a reasonably safe condition for such use, including the duty of making inspections and tests at proper intervals while he was so employed. If the defendant failed to perform this duty, and the plaintiff con tracted the disease from which he died by reason of such neglect, the plaintiff can recover unless the de ceased assumed the risk of his employment, or was guilty of what the law terms contributory negligence." The above opinion places great stress on "reasonable care" and, of course, no employer can observe reason able care unless he has at least a little knowledge about the nature of dust and fume hazards. It may be said, first of all. that large and heavy par ticles of earthy and metallic matter generally do not Foreign particles in the air become dangerous to hu man beings when their mass is so slight that they readily remain in suspension in the atmosphere. Such particles when subjected to measurement generally indicate a size under S or 10 microns (a micron equals 1/25,000") and arc therefore so minute as separately to be invisible, although when in great concentration such dust can be detected in the atmosphere in the form of a cloud, and in the accumulations of powdery material which settle on everything and everywhere. Under 5 microns in size dust particles readily pass through the mouth and nose, traverse the bronchial pas sages and lodge in the alveolar tissue, from which re mote parts of the lung structure they cannot be dis lodged by hawking or coughing. Suspended matter in air may come under the classifi cation of fumes as well as dust. Fumes signify, "Liquid or solid particles from 0.2 to 1 micron in diameter formed by physico-chemical reactions such as distilla tion, condensation and combustion. Acid mists, ammo nium chloride, lead, zinc oxide, and the like, can be produced in the form of fumes." Naturally, the more concentrated the quantity of dust and fume in suspension in the atmosphere the greater the danger to which the workman is exposed and the smaller the particles the greater the likelihood that en trance into the lung interstices will ensue. The size of particles in prolonged suspension in the air is more likely to be under 5 microns than over; probably the most dan gerous sort of dust is that ranging from 2 microns to 0.5 micron, or smaller, because, as just stated, these im palpable particles readily remain in suspension in the air. The size of fume particles, as already given, constitute a respiratory hazard, because such particles, ranges from 1 micron to 0.2 micron in diameter. In being large, do not remain in suspension in the air ami other words, the smaller the particles the greater the even when breathed by workmen are almost invariably danger; unaware of this fact employers and workmen, 5^2- / S / f unless specially warned, are prone to regard s x ENGINEERING November^ J93l i- We do know, however, that breathing of dust under j palpable dust as altogether harmless. the following conditions is seriously harmful: ' To the lay mind it seems strange that the i Lead dust and fumes as found in smelting and burn body reacts so differently to the character of tin .. licroscopic particles which find their way into tr. igs. Some substances can be inhaled tor considerable , ..ious . ing operations, pottery* manufacturing, painting, lead tempering, paint spraying, battery, rubber manufacturing and all other occupations in which with comparatively slight physical effect, while other lead is an essential material. substances even on brief physical exposure tend to start Arsenic dust and fumes as in smelting, manufacturing inflammatory processes in the lung tissue, some 1- > ds insecticides, spraying of fruit trees, and the like. of which advance progressively, even if exposure ce ses, Ail kinds of operations in which dust of free silica until death results. All types of fine dust com bining is present, as granite cutting, stone crushing, sand "free silica" as "quartz" are prone to set up inflamma pulverizing, sandblasting, the mixing of glass ma tory processes in the lung tissue, serious conditions terials and glazes, and so on through a long series which cannot be completely checked when once started of industrial operations. and which result in much physical suffering and in pre Asbestos and everv operation in which it is used. __^ mature death. Other dust and fumes entering the lungs I*ur cutting and felting (mercury poisoning). may become absorbed into the blood stream and cause The making and handling of spraying material with general poisoning with symptoms of bodily effect vary . nicotine content. * ing according to the toxicity of the substance. Long i'umes of zinc and brass, from brass founding, smelt continued absorption of toxic dust and fumes often re ing, autogenous welding, and other operations of sults in complete disability, ending in death. like character in the presence of ziue. {In this group the results are unpleasant and temporarily Scientific knowledge of the results of dust exposure incapacitating but not cumulative in effect.) has not progressed far enough to exactly predicate the Besides the above operations, unpleasant results may degree of danger in every kind of dust and fume. The follow exposure to such dusty conditions as cleaning of only safe way for an employer is to regard all dust in factory floors and walls in the presence of germ laden industry as a hazard. Under best conditions it cannot dust; threshing and cleaning of grain, and numberless help but be harmful to a degree, while under adverse other operations tending to introduce into the human conditions the shortening of life is almost inevitable. system irritating and poisonous material. Cooperation Between Employer and Secretary of Labor Doak, United States Senator Wag Employee ner, Congressman John D. Clark and many other dis tinguished citizens were present and expressed their ad A REMARKABLE event has recently taken place at Endicott, New York, where 40,000 persons miration for what George F. Johnson's life has repre sented as a great industrial builder, as a great humani marched and ISO,000 persons viewed the parade in celetarian, and in maintaining prosperity and happiness to bration of fifty years' development of the Endicott john- many thousands of families. sou Corporation, manufacturers of shoes. This is .the type of industrial leadership which any George F. Johnson fifty years before located in Endi company or community is fortunate to possess, the type cott with no other assets than health, youth and ambi that does not fail and even in the hardest times of busi tion to begin work at the bench in a small shoe factory. ness depression keep the working force employed and Today Mr.->Johnson is chairman of the board of the safeguards the community from the suffering of unem Endicott Johnson Corporation which employs 17,000 ployment. workers with a productive capacity oi 135,000 pairs of shoes per day and running at capacity at a time when practically the whole world is in the depths of an eco nomic depression. This "Golden Jubilee" celebration of the Endicott Johnson workers was honoring George Old Man Accident Says: 1?. Johnson. The whole community joined in the cele bration. '"With Carefulness, I Cannot Mr. Johnson has always considered himself as one f the Endicott Johnson associate workers. He has Succeed; with Carelessness I een the pilot in this great organization and has been not only untiring in advancing the Endicott Johnson Cannot Fail1' Corporation to a foremost position in its industry but he lias canted the love, respect and esteem of no only It's Up to You! his many thousands of workers but the whole c- * u- 5'