The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-08-06
WORkMEN NOT PROTECTED
 ADEQUATELY BY LEGISLATION FROM OCCUPATI0NAL DISEASE


 The failure of the national and state governments to protect workmen from preventable diseases of industry is strikingly brought out in a report just issued of the Second National Confer ence on Industrial Diseases. It Is shown that in three years the Illinois poisoning in that state and that has, ty and incomplete study disclosed 121 cases of this one disease of occupa- tion in New York City alone. Many of these were due to the absence of regulations requiring the use of sim pie protective devices and practices which, it is pointed out, are in gem era1 ,ISe in Germany and England un- der Legislation providing for the pay ment Of insurance benefits in. the case of sickness directly due to industry.
 7. A growing appreciation, however, of the need of regulating the conditions among which the thirty million wage earners of this country carry on their work is shown from the recent prohi- bition by Congress of the manufacture or sale of sphossy jaw matches and from the enactment in eight states during the past year of the bill pre- pared by the Association for Labor Legislation requiring the compulsory reporting of certain of the more evil dent industrial diseases. The report, which is profusely illustrated, is di- vided into four parts. Diseases of Occupation are treated in papers read before the American Medical Aesocia- ton, this year for the first time giv- ing place on it's. annual program to the industrial disease problem. Dr. w. Gilman Thompson presents "a plan for the classification of occupationa1 diseases; com pressed air illness; or ''caisson diseasep is discussed by Dr. q,,1. Ir1 rq 3,692 cases under his observation dur ing the construction of the Pennsyl- vania East River Tunnels, and pr. l.. M. Ryan physician to the Foundation Company, deals with the same disease and the preventive methods to be adopted in caisson work. Occupati tion- al skin diseases, nervous and mental dustrial poisons are covered by such well known authorities as DT. John A Fordyce Dr. Charles A. Dana and Dr. EIlice M Alger and Dr., David l.. Edsall, whose testimony refutes the mention that national ingenuity and fnventiyeness have lessefed industrial disease here and have made less need ful the ,pigid legal control, exercised in other countries.
 Reports of lead poisoning in New York City and of the examination of 1,413 workers in the cellar bakeries and tailor shops are included in sec tion dealing with inyestiga tions. Dr. Richard c. Cabot of Boston, pleads for more work by hospitals and clinics in the prevention of industrial disea- ses. and Prof c. E. A. Winslow con- tributes much discussed paper on temperature and humidity in facto- ries. Professor. Baskerville proposes the use of certain preventive agencies for worknen exposed to dusts, fumes and gases.
 If industrial disease is to be ade- ouately handled in this country, in formation must be had as to the ex- tent of these diseases and as to the particular occupations in which they occur, points out Dr. Greasy l.. Will bur chief statistician of the U. s Cen sus Bureau. A proper nomenclature of occupations is the first requisite and this, Dr. Wilbur announces, is be- ing prepared by; the American Medi- cal Association.
 The medical inspection of factories in Illinois is shown to have resulted in the reporting of PAT cases of indus trial disease from S1 manufacturing g esta blishn1ents during the first eight months of the laws operation One plant is cited which had 73 cases of lead poisoning last August due to dry sand papering of lead paint. With the use of a simple respiratOr for the protection of these workers as recom- mended by the department, the haz- ard of this occupation has been so far reduced that there has not been a single case of lead poisoning in that particular establishment in the last four months. Dr. Leonard W. Hatch, statistician of the New York Depart ment of Labor who has had charge of the registration of industrial dis eases in New York State. emphasizes the need for educating physicians as to the intent and scope of registra ton laws and testifies to the gratifying re- suits obtained from the first few months operation of the act.
 The report, which is issued by the American Association for Labor Leg islation closes with a bibliography compiled in cooperation with the Li- brary of Congress and the United States Bureau of Labor, containing in addition to more important foreign works over 600 American titles
 All beauty is heightened by unity