Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-12-06
Smoke and
Health.

VI eIiohe vi neditn, winch nave JUST
been published by the Mellon Insti-
tute of Industrial Research, which is
carried on in connection with the
scientific studies of the University OF
Pittsburgh. Special interest attaches
to the smoke studies which have been
conducted by the institute because the
investigation started at Pittsburgh
which is known generally to the peo-
pie of the whole United States as the
smokiest Of smoky cities.
Experts of the bureau of mines are
interested in the Mellon Institute
smoke study because the bureau has
attacked the smoke problem for years
on the theory that smoke represents a
waste OF fuel resources and is evidence
of imperfect combustion of coal The
use or proper types of furnaces and
proper methods of stocking coal will
on1clals of the bureau of mines say
largely do away with the smoke prob
lem of any industrial plant. The gov
ernment's public health officials are
giving careful study to the report be-
cause 1t may throw light on many OF
the health problems which the bureau
IS called upon to study.
Practically all of the investigators
who have been engaged in the smoke
study made by the Mellon Institute
are agreed that smoke in the atmos-
phere of city has a tremendous in
huence in increasing the severity of
illness and the mortality Of acute dis
eases of air passages of the human
body. They say that this increase in
susceptibility to disease is in part the
result OF lowering the natural resistance
to disease. DR.. W. c. White says that
in the study Of the effects of smoke on
health he finds in simple terms that "the
smoker the atmosphere the more colds
and bronchitis and the more money paid
to Doctors
made of the smoke problem in Pitts
burgh all sides of the question have
been considered. and the favorable evil
dence toward smoke, as well as the
though the relation of smoke to tu-
berculosis is one of greatly divided
opinion, DR.. White points out that one
or the conspicuous things to physicians
in Pittsburgh. on which there is gen.
eral agreement, is the virulency of
pneumonia infection. 1t varies from
year to year. but seems to carry off
it's death toll more quickly in Pitts
burgh than in any of the other cities
which the Institutes experts investi-
the smoke problem, DR.. White says:
1T is well to call the public's at
tention to the fact that pneumonia has
in the main an increasing death rate
a whole. that it takes it's victims from
the extremes of life, and also takes off
many of our most useful middle-aged
business men. and if it were possible
way the production of useless smoke
in the cities much might be done to
conserve that on which the community
has expended the most, and from which
1T might reasonably expect returns in
place of death by rapid Illness
DIR, IL, A. COhOe. another of the in
vestlgators. in speaking Of some of the
remote effects of smoke upon health,
SAYS:
THE present-day recognition of the
Importance of the mental influence of
mind upon bodily health is a hopeful
sign of the times. 1t is doubtful
whether the maximum of mental acu-
men and bodily efficiency may for long
infrequently one hears the complaint
of casual visitor to a smoky city
with respect to a feeling of mental de-
preston provoked by the smoky at
mosphere A further NOT obvious fac
healthful is the necessary curtailment
of free house and factory ventilation.
To open window carries with it the
certain penalty of soiling a curtain, a
rug or furniture. The Jealous house
wife is prone to guard the cleanliness
of her house at the expense of fresh
air, and out-of-door sleeping porches
are for a similar reason conspicuous
by their absence in smoky towns in
contrast with their increasing use in
cleanly. modern cities"
That New Zealand, with the lowest
infant death rate of any country in the
world, is still
Infant Death Rate end eavoring to
in New Zealand. s. g n eve even
the preservation of child life is shown
in an informal report which was re-
ceived few days ago by Miss Julia c.
Lathrop. director of the United States
children's bureau. The report is writ
ten by Mrs. Bella c. King, wife of DIR.
TRULY King. the organizer of the New
Zealand Society for the Health of
Women and Children.
DIR. King reports that baby shows
form an important part of the program
of the meetings of branches of the
society for the promotion of the health
branches of the society hold an annual
afternoon tea to which both the
mothers and babies are invited, and
members of the society meet the
women, exchange information, compare
babies and have further opportunity
and physicians who have visited them
during the year. The Governor of New
Zealand and other officials make it
point to attend these conferences, and
it is largely due to the keen interest of
men high in the government life in
the movement that people are en-
couraged to cooperate so generally in
the work.
The New Zealand Society reports to
Miss Lathrop that it Is getting fine
results in the publication of Our
Babies" column of newspaper material
which is furnished to fifty newspapers
the dominion. and which
reaches all classes and conditions OF
rise to a large amount of correspond
ence, and in this way the society
reaches many of the persons who are
interested in children's health and in
the lowering of infant mortality rates.
Lectures, demonstrations and talks to
mothers by DOCTORS nurses and members
of the committees of the society fire.
quently have far-reaching results, ac-
cording to Dr. King. In referring to
case in point, she tells the human-interest
story of a mother who attended demon
stration on the m ethod of m od1fying cows
milk for bah because she was interest :
ed in lettering the health of a friends
artificiany fed baby. which was not
thriving. This mother was SO inter
ested in the demonstration that for
nine years she has acted as an unpaid
nurse for large number of persons IN
the district in which she lives: she
helps the mothers and babies in the
neighborhoods, has talks with and gives
to mothers unions,
girls clubs, factory girls, girl scouts