The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1896-10-15
DANGEROUS OCCUPATIONS
How Death Lurks i'll Numerous
Industries.
Hands s. Sill There's More
10 Follow.

Men risk their lives day after day ct
occupations in which most people i'm
agine there is not the slightest danger.
Every day, too, there are men entering
employment with the absolute knowl-
edge that their work will lead to death,
and for such positions there is even a
keen competition.
1t is estimated that no man con-
stantly employed in the manufacture
OF ice can live more than ten years
under the conditions in which he does
his work. In these places the men
work in polar region temperature.
In the sweltering dog days, when the
average individual is Directing to the
thermometer being at 80 degrees, these
men are closely muft1ed in OVercOats
and gloves. Even then it is most diff
cult to keep the extremities warm, and
the constant working in such an at
mosphere brings on pneumonia and
consumption.
Men take their lives in their hands
when they work at paint making. Here
arsenic and lead are much used, and
by slight and imperceptible degrees the
paint maker draws particles of these
poisonS into his system, bringing on
diseases of the throat and lungs, and
causing him to fade away as though
some hand at his throat were. choking
out his life. Those who are engaged in
the apparently harmless business of
house painting also come under the
deadly influence of the poisons, and in
the mixing of their paints inhale the
fumes. Painters collie and lead par
aIysis are but two of the diseases to
which the painter is liable.
Few poisonS are more deadly than
mercury. 1t has it's effect on all work
men employed in the silvering of mir
rOrs, in gliding, bronzing and making
of bronzes and similar work. The act
ion of this poison is easily seen. When
the workman's hand begins TO trembie
and his mouth and gums become sore,
his fellow workmen understand that
the poison has entered his system and
that he must give up his work or die.
But it is seldom that a man gives up
his work; he goes on, waiting for his
death
Nine years is the limit OF a work
mans life after he begins to assist in
the manufacture of chlorine gas. The
gas, which is extensively used for
bleaching and dyeiDg, generally emits
a greeniSh heavy Vapor. This poison,
entering the lungs of the workman,
brings on cough which racks the sys-
tenn, lnfiames the lung cells and gradu-
ally eats away the tissues, making a
wreck of the man and producing death.
In some factories the use OF a ventil-
ating mask is insisted upon, but even
this is of little use, and strangely
enough is objected TO by the workmen
as inconvenient. Medical men have la
bored for years TO find some way of
keeping wOrkmen from inhaling dan
gerous and deathdealing fumes, but so
far have not been successful.
Hat factories are also on the lookout
for this preventive. One would think
that hat makers would be free from
unseen dangers to life. But in the
making of headgear a fine lint is
thrown off which is disastrous to the
lungs of the workmen.
An energetic statistician has just fig
ured out that there are fewer deaths
among the men who work in the MAX
ing of dynamite than in the seemingly
harmless pursuit of curing hides. The
peril to the worker is particularly
great in the latter trade, for an I'M
wholesome odOr is given off by the
hides that affects the nervous system,
and is as certain in its effects as a pis-
tol shot
The manufacture of matches is an
other business fraught with the great
est danger. MatchmakerS, after a few
years of labor, contract a loathsome
disease from the poison given off, and
it obtains a firm hold on the bones of
the body, especially those of the jaw
and face. The bones crumble away.
There are few of the matchmakeTs who
escape from the disease in greater or
less degree.
Occupations which in any way deal
with the grinding of metals bring on
innumerable ailments, owing TO the
fine dust which is given Off This Gre
ates different forms of asthma, and
especially affects the air passages from /
the nose to the lungs. Under this head
come the making and grinding of scis- /
sOrs, knives, razors, and worst of all, /
needle grinding, which is said to kill /
those who engage in it before they /
reach middle age.
For the most part these diseases of I
workmen come on by such impercepti- /
BILE degrees that there is little relief /
for the sufferers, except for them to 1
give up their work and leave it forever
As this in the majority of cases is a
financial impossibility, the workmen
who toll at these dangerous occupa-
lions continue to die off and others
take their places, to follow in their
turn to the grave.-London Mail.