The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1906-01-06
The MENACE
IN SCRAP
TOBACCO

New York Jan. 6.--"All physicians who
make a speciality Of mouth and throat dis
eases have noted that I'm recent years
there has been a marked In the number
Of persons thus afflicted. and / am satis-
fed that a considerable proportion OF this
increase can be traced directly to the use
Of microbe-laden tobacco and especially to
the kind known as scrap tobacco" says
DR.. d. ID. Stevens In the Medico-Legal
Journal
"A few years ago. l made an exhaus-
tive study OF the whole subject OF tobac-
co. ON the course OF my inevstiga tions
visited the great cigar-factories not only
of New York city, but those or the ex-
treme Southern States. where cigar-mak-
ers from Cuba are employed, and what
/ saw. convinced me that. more stringent
laws governing the employment OF work
men. should be adopted which would COM
pei the owners 10 exercise greater care I'm
keeping the raw material and the manu-
featured product, free from contamina-
ton of every kind
I'm an extreme southern state and ad-
jacent sea islands / found that nearly 20
per cent OF the cigar-makers were afflct-
ed with tuberculosis or syphilitic dis
eases. SO far as / could learn. no attempt
was being made to exclude such persons
from the factories. | saw men at work
who ought to have been I'm the hospital.
tuberculosis seems TO be peculiarly a
cigar-maker's disease. for II is more prev
alent among them than any other. The
close, damp atmosphere I'm which they
work. their total disregard for the ordl-
nary rules OF health. their indifference to
xercise In the open air, their loose habits
-oXer=indulgence I'm smoking and drinking
all have tedency TO hasten the develop
ant - tt.A
found lodgment in their bodies.
What particularly dsgusted me in the
factories mentioned was the habit the
cigar makers have of putting the end of
the cigar in the mouth when forming q
tip. As number of these workmen had
mucous patches on their lips and others
were in an advanced stage OF consumption
you can imagine the unsanitary condi-
tion of the cigars they produce.
Scrap tobacco Is the name given to the
cuttings and fragments OF leaves discarded
by the workmen In making cigars. These
scraps are, of course. OF the same quality
and character as those portions OF the
leaves that are put into the cigars. and if
kept clean they are certainly no more in
furious
Unfortunately In most cigar factories
this Tobacco during the process OF manu-
facture falls on the floor, where IL is trod-
den under foot. Fragments of food and
other foreign substances drop upon II and
sometimes. when tho aim OF the cigar
maker is not good he misses the cuspidor
and the saliva falls upon the scraps on
the floor.
In Harlem shop. one OF the smaller
kind at the rear Of a retail store, | once
saw cigar maker at work who was in
the last stages OF consumption. The hec-
tic flush was upon his cheeks and his frail
body was racked every few moments by
paroxysms of coughing
. Every tine -eetsted he expertorated
on the floor among the fragments OF to-
bacco. Think OF the condition OF these
scraps when they were finally collected
and made up into chewing tobacco and
sold in the shops! Filth indescribable,
disease incurable. death in it's most
hideous and repulsive form! It makes me
shudder 10 think OF II.
'The demand for scrap tobacco Is now
so great that it brings IL or - cents a
pound and the factories. large and small,
find n ready market for all they can pro-
ducc / do not contend that there are
no factories i'm which the scraps are kept
clean and wholesome, but must say that
most OF those | visited do not belong to
that class
"It has been stated. and IL may be and
probably Is true. that one-half OF the
cigar factories from which scraps are OBJ
tained are conducted i'm the best possible
manner: that the workmen are OF the
right kind: that the factories are clean
and their product In an excellent condi-
tion when IL reaches the purchaser. But
the danger lies I'm the other half, for the
consumer can never tell whether the
scrap tobacco he buys from his favorite
shop comes from the clean factory or
from the filthy factory"