The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1915-02-22
VENTILATION.
B BY Florida Board of Health.
! <>>~>~~~~~~~<~>S

Strange, isn't 1t, how afraid of fresh
air some Fioridians are. Go into
crowded street car in almost any Flori-
da city on a crisp day-the kind Of
day when normally healthy man or
woman is glad to be alive-and notice
how it smells. The accumulation OF
bad air. air that has been oreathed
over and over again, laden with all
kinds of disease germs-it's enough to
nauseate you and it probably does url-.
less you make your speedy escape.
GO into any one Of hundred or a
thousand or ten thousand Florida bed
rooms in the early morning and 1T
smells "stuffy,' close and unhealthful,
and it Is all these, and more. It's a
menace to health, yet hundreds and
thousands of F1oridians, especially ne
groes, believe they would be. inviting
speedy death If they slept within a.
hundred feet on an open window during
the cooler half of the year.
In every place where a dozen or two
persons are gathered, the chances
are that one or more is afflicted with
tuberculosis or some other communi7s
cable disease. 1t may be the early
stages, but none the less dangerous.
In every assemblage some one is like
ly to cough and that means the con-
Examination of the air, the air you are
breathing, with the germs of tuber
culosis, of cold of some lung OF throat
affection.
There is danger in a crowd of per-
sons gathered In any enclosed room, no
matter how spacious it may be. There
al yesf1i
together, out Of doors, and even under
the open sky of heaven 1t is safer to
move away from the person who is
coughing and splitting on the ground
at your feet.
Fresh air, uncontaminated air, is the
worst enemy to the spread Of tuber-
culosis. 1t Is the most efficient cure
for this disease, when 1t has not pro-
crossed too far, and the doctors use 1t |
unlimitedly in the treatment of pneu
monia.
The average closed street car
contains a supply Of air SUFFICIENT for
one person for four to Ave minutes
Fifty or sixty passengers use it up In |
q few seconds.
The air in an averaged sized bed !
room. occupied on two persons. should
be changed once every four to FIVE
The school room in which |
thirty to fifty pupils are seated, should |
have a constant stream Of air from |
out Of doors passing through it. The |
same Is true of a church, theater or |
an assembly room
Fresh air doesn't contain disease |
germs. and no one catches cold from |
it. It's the germ and not the draft OF |
air that brings the cold, and If this |
annoying affiiction follows exposure to |
a stream of the outside atmosphere, II |
is because the germ was IN the system |
The danger from exhausted |
or bad air is Infinitely greater than |
from draft.
The screened sleeping porch, where |
one is exposed to the out door temper |
atures and protected only from mos
quitoes and rain. is the ideal restina |
place for weary humanity. More and /
more the value Of an unrestricted sup |
ply Of uncontaminated fresh air in I'M |
limited quantities. is being appreciated |
and used, not only as a preventive Of |
disease but as medicine for relieving
disease conditions and even as a cure |
In the primary stages OF throat and |
lung thoubles. No day or night In |
Florida il so cold. so wet. or SO windy |
as to bring danger from breathing the |
air that nature may happen to be |
at that particular time. And |
really. there Is no perfectly good ex-
cuse for any Floridian to die excepting |
from old age.
Every healthy person should have at |
least 500 cubic feet Of air space If |
air Is to be kept pure 5000 cubic feet |
per hour per head is needed. A per |
son in health breathes from is to 20 |
times per minute, which is 80 cubic |
inches to each normal respiration