The Worcester spy., 1899-07-25
DANGER IN SCHOOL ROOMS.
The Health Of Children Demands the
Elimination of Pollution of Ventilation.


Or. Bunham spoke on ventilation
and cleanliness of the school house, !"
and said in part:
A great many important investiga-
tions have been made to determine the
actual conditions of school houses and
almost without exception they have
oeen found to be in bad condition. The
sanitary conditions and the air have
been found to be bad.
A consensus Of opinions is of course
to be found in regard to the effects Of
pad air. 1t has been declared that the
work of the children in badly ventilated
buildings has fallen 40 per cent. When
conditions are improved, the change in
working can be readily seen.
The first source of contamination is
the expired air. Expired air contains
only IL parts of oxygen, and the amount
OF carbon dioxide is very large. BY
decreasing the amount of oxygen in the
tlrst place, it is injurious and there are
many actually poisonous constituents.
IL was thought that the carbon dioxide
was the poison, and many methods
We're told of to get rid of it. But car
bon dioxide, like other gases, diffuses
Again, it has been proven that it is not
poisonous In itself, for it can be
breathed when sufficiently mixed with
oxygen without injury. 1t is said that
carbon dioxide may be taken as a
measure for the other impurities. When
the carbon dioxide idea was exploded,
the organic constituents Of expired air
were taken up. Brown-Sicard seemed
TO demonstrate, by g. series of expert
ments, that an organic poison existed
in expired air.
Until the last four or five years, this
opinion was held, but now 1t is doubted
whether the small amount of organic
matter Is sufficient to eontaminate the
air to dangerous degree. A number
of experiments give results which show
that there is no organic matter Of a
| toxic quality Determination of bacte-
ria and of ammonia were made with
| but barely a sign of ammonia being
round, while no bacteria, other than the
ordinary air organisms, were found.
| Tests were made in the British army,
| and among civilians Of the soldier age,
and 1t was found that the death rate
! among the soldiers living in crowded
and ill-ventilated barracks was much
higher than among those outside.
| The first danger in school rooms,
then, is inspired air, but 1t must be out
side Of the insufficient oxygen, the car
| bon dioxide and the organic poisons.
The various sources Of dust, dirty
! SHOES, books, clothes chalk, make the
second danger. They carry the micro
| organisms. In public school there
We're found from 80 to 100 million mi
cro-organisms per cubic meter of air
| The number of organisms in the air
is not dependent upon the absolute
number Of organisms in the place, but
upon conditions; the stirring and set
ting of the dust. One pupil breathes
over $4,000 micro organisms during the
five hours stay in the school room.
As TO the causes of these micro-or-
| ganisgns, first the position of schoo
| house. The higher and freer the loca.
| tion will make them less. The number
| depends on the ventilation and cleanli.
| ness. Care in cleaning and keepins
| clean the room should be taken Clean.
| liness in the children has a great dea
| to do with 1t. 1t was found that the
/ number stood in relation to the age ot
the children, being greatest for younger
/ children. Most of the micro organism.
are harmless, but many of them may
be pathological.
| A large per cent Of the children MAY
| be in weakened and diseased condi
tion, and many may be more suscept
| ible to diseases. Hence the danger
from these heterogeneous. Another
danger is from the various sources O.
bad odors, from cloths and bodies O.
Il lIOill QGCI1y LeGLn o.
4 school children. 1t is shown that
large per cent of the school children
have decadent teeth. 1t is impossibl,
u to have pure air when there are 81
many deeaying teeth, without propel
!, attention.
i The heating apparatus is a source O.
danger The chief trouble seems to b.
. in oyer-heating, and in many case,
there is escape of carbon monoxide ant
! other poisonous gases.
Various sources of contamination arr
7 from the surroundings when condition.
. are unsanitary.
There is no consensus of opinion as Il
which Of these is the most injurious
! the organic matter in exhaled air an
!; pears not to be harmful, and it SEEM
: now that the other impurities as dus
and bad odors, as well as moisture ant
overheating, are the real causes o
: discomfort in school children
Two methods of overcoming this ma,
] be named. One may be called th
Z method Of dilution and the other b
removing the-source of contamination
: The method hitherto employed ha
been dilution, and we have hithert
been satisfied with simple ventilation
] The sensible thing is obviously to at
tempt to eliminate the source of pollu
t tiOn.