Rocky Ford enterprise., 1911-09-15
Very respectfully.
Daniel Ward, Supt.

The following article, written and
published under the direction of the
Colorado State Medical Society, is
appropriate and timely right now:
An adult man or woman whose
powers of resistance or vital power
is great, may live, for time at least,
in dusty rooms or poorly ventilated
rooms without being made sick by
these unhygienic conditions, but even
the strongest will in time succumb.
Not so with children; their proper
growth and development require that
at all times they must have an abund-
ance of Gods pure outdoor air to
breathe, free from dust and disease
germs and other harmful impurities.
Except during a dust storm, the
outside air is the purest and best.
Disease germs such as cause tubercu..
losis, diphtheria, scarlet fever and
pneumonia, cannot live very long out
of doors The sunlight and oxygen
of the air and other natural germ-de-
stroyinp agents soon kill them: Very
seldom does anyone get an infectious
disease from breathing in outside air.
But in the house 1t is very dill
ferent. A tuberculous germ that IS
coughed up in the street will die and
be harmless within "a hours, while
il coughed up on rug or carpet
within doors it will live and be dam
perous a year from that time, when
the rug is swept and the dust and
germs are inhaled, unless the rug mas
in the meantime been thoroughly
cleaned and disinfected or AIRED
These disease germs always adhere
to small particles of dust, They can
not live in the air unless attached to
some solid substance. For this rea-
son inside dust is dangerous: Dusty
rooms in your house are unhygienic,
even il there are no disease germs
there. because the breathing in of the
dust ;rritates the nose and throat and
lungs so that when you do breathe IN
air containing disease germs, as we
all have to do verv often. they lodge
and grow and do more harm than
they would if the air passages were
sound.
But in school rooms and other pub
lie rooms there are usually some DIS.
ease germs attached to the dust, and
this dust not only irritates the air
passages. but carries the fatal germs
right along ready to be implanted in
this susceptible lining membrance OF
your bronc HAL tubes and lungs.
There is almost always someone in
every school that is. giving OFT disease
germs. We believe that at least one
half OF all cases of diphtheria are in
their school rooms at least part OF
the first day of their illness. Now, ii
these school rooms are not kept
clean this dust is constantly raised in
the air by means of the feet and
skirts of pupils and teachers. The
floors of the room may be poor. with
big open cracks and splintered
boards. If so, it will be impossible
for the janitor to keep it clean and
free from dust and germs. Or the
janitor may depend upon broom and
feather buster as the best means tor
his work. With the broom he will
stir the dust up in the air, only to
have it settle again on the floor and
furniture. After it has fully settled
back he will hit it another whack with
his duster and send it flying again
the air of the room, but in
no case does he get it out of the
room. The best means to keep a
school room free from dust and
germs is to have good floors with
a smooth, hard surface, then take out
the accumulated dust every day with
a vacuum cleaner. with felt surfaces
on tool of the machine for use on
wood floors. Portable machines may
be used and taken from room to
room, or. still better. stationary
vacuum cleaning plant with connec-