The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-12
LEAD POISONING IN 28 TRADES
Why the Lead Trades Are in Bad ReputeOften Working Force Changes Four Times Year-How to
 Make Lead Smelling Safe
By R. HAMILTON 

Exclusive Service The Survey Press
 Bureau)
 A model white lead factory in Illinois employs throughout the year about 200 men, Medical examination of those who complained, or seemd i'll, revealed 25 cases of lead poisoning last year. Cookson's
 White Lead Works, in Newcastle-On- Tyne, a moder English factory, has 1SI employees. Careful weekly medical inspec-
 ton of all on the payroll failed to show
 one instance of lead poisoning last year.
 A white lead factory in London with 92 men has not had a case of poisoning in
 five years, while in a slightly larger Illi-
 nois factory 2S percent of all the employees
 have been leaded, two of them fatally,
 within the last year. E
 Such facts as these show that the
 methods used in this country are far more dangerous than those employed in Eu-.
 rope and England. An investigation into
 the lead trades in Illinois has been made
 by the state commission on occupational
 diseases. Instances of lead poisoning have
 been found in 2S trades and from the
 records of physicians during the past
 three years 57S individual cases have been
 discovered. Information gathered from
 foremen and physicians points to a much larger figure. There is necessarily only.
 small fraction of the victims whose names and addresses can be procured, for the majority of physicians keep no record of these.
 There are very few women on our list, only IS out of the total of 57S, and the fact that the lead trades in this state em- ploy very small numbers of women is a great advantage, for they are notoriously
 more susceptible to this form of poison | ing than men.
 
 | Certain industries stand out as especial | ly productive of lead poisoning. These are the white lead industry lead smelting and refining the making of storage bat teries and of dry colors and paints and | the painting trade. Out of SIS cases of lead poisoning known to have occurred in | 1910 all but 65 belonged to these five trades. All these are inherently dangerous | as carried on in this country, but all could
 be made far safer than they are without any radical change in method. There are
 quite unnecessary dangers, due not to the | method used, but only to carelessness, to lack of thought.
 The lead smeltng industry Is an Illus l tration. As carried on in America 1t Is far more dangerous trade than in Eu- rope, and nothing but a change in meth cd could make one of our plants as safe as a German lead smelling works. Un- fortunately. however, the American lead
 smelter-he is usually a newly arrived Slav Greek or Italian-is not only exposed tc risks which he would escape in Ger
 many, but he is not nearly as well cared for as he would be there Our methods compel a man to work in an atmosphere of lead dust and fumes which foreign methods have done away with, but while foreign workman is cared for under a doctors supervision, our laborers are
 often completely neglected
 There Is much lead-poisoning among the lead smelters in Illinois. One hun dred and eighty-one cases have been found. Many instances remain undis- | covered because the unskilled foreigners | leave the work as soon as they begin to suffer and are, consequently. never heard | of. Eleven physicians have stated that | they see a total of 270 cases year among | the workers in the three largest smeting works. These three factories employ ap- proximately 1000 hands, but according to | the most conservative statements of their | foremen there are at least 4000 men em- ployed yearly, because the working force changes continuously.
 | The making of storage batteries is ev- anywhere recognized as dangerous. 1t is not possible to make storage battery