The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-03-14
LEAD POISONING
 IN 28 TRADES
Why the Lead Trades Are in Bad Repute - Often Working Force Changes Four Times a Year-How to Make Lead Smelling Safe.

Safe.
 pr. Alice Hamilton, Medical Inspector
 Illinois Commission on Occupational
 Diseases.
 Exclusive Service The Survey Press
 Bureau)
 A model white lead factory in Illi- aois employs throughout the year about 200 men, Medical examination of those who complained, or seemed i'll, revealed twenty-five cases of lead poi soning last year. Cookson's White Lead Works in Newcastle on Tyne model English factory. has 1S7 em- ployees. Careful weekly medical in- to show one instance of lead poisoning last year. A white lead factory in London with ninety-two men has not had a case of poisoning in five years while in a slightly larger Illinois fac ;ory twenty-eight percent of all the employees have been leaded two of them fatally within the last year.
 Such facts as these show that the methods used in this country are far more dangerous than those employed n Europe and England. An investiga- Iion into the lead trades in Illinois has been made by the State Commits sion 9p Occupational Diseases. In- stapcsS of lead poisoning have been found m twenty-eight trades and from he 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 a small fraction of the victims whose names and ad- dresses can be procured, for the ma jority of physicians keep no record of these.
 There ara verv feu ropoep ar o,,r list. only IS out of the total of 57S, and the fact that the lead trades in this State employ very small numbers of women is a great advantage, for they are notoriously more susceptible to this form of poisoning than men.
 Certain industries stand out as spe- cially productive of lead poisoning. These are the white lead industry, lead smelling and refining, the making of storage batteries and of dry cOlOrS and paints and the painting trade. Out of BIS cases of lead poisoning known to have occurred in 1919 all but sixty-five belonged to these five trades. All these are inherently dang erous 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 l but only to carelessness to lack of thought The lead smelting industry | is an illustration. As carried on in American 1t is a far more dangerous | trade than in Europe, and nothing but | . change in method could make one cr our plants as safe as a German i lead Srnelting works. Unfortunately, | hawever. the American lead shelter te is usually a newly arrived Slav, | Greek or Italian-is not only exposed | ta risks which he would escape in l Germany, but he is not nearly as we'll | 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 l with but while a foreign workman is | cared for under a doctors supervision, | our laborers are often completely neg lected
 There is much lead-poisoning among | the lead snelters in Illinois. One hun dred and eighty-one cases have been l found Many instances remain undis- covered because the unskilled foreign CTS leave the work as soon as they be- gin to suffer and are. consequently, | never heard of. Eleven physicians | have stated that they see a total of | 20 cases a year among the workers in the three largest Smelting works. i These three factories employ approxi- ately 1000 hands but according to the | most conservative statements of their foremen there are at least 4G00 men employed yearly because the working force changes continuously.
 The ma king of storage batteries is everywhere recognized as dangerous. It is not possible to make a storage battery factory entirely safe although he evils can be greatly reduced. None of tho factories visited were found to he using all possible precautions to protect the men. One newly arrived Russian Jew was set to working with the red lead paste and mOistened his fingers in his mouth as he worked, l because he had never been told that the material was dangerous. He was <eriously leaded at the end of ten days.
 The white lead industry in Illinois has improved more than any other lead trade during very recent times ! Three of our four factories are new ! a nj very well constructed and in all bu: one of them-there is a strong eff furs being made to do away with some of the more dangerous features !
 Some of our paint and dry color houses where dry lead salts are pro ouced and handled. have an inexcus- ably large amount of lead-poisOning. That this is due solely to neglect is shown by the contrast between two Illinois paint houses. These two fac tories are both new. we'll ventilated, 6 dnirable externally. They employ about an equal number of men. We have not traced a single case Of lead