The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1917-04-28
DISEASE AND
DIRT ARE
TWINS
Filth in Streets May Cause Your
Death, So Help as Much as
You Can to Clean Town..
Sec That the Children Wash Hands
and Face Before Eatina-and
Fight Flies, for They're
Pestilent.
BY DR.. A. s. BARNES.

getner, Dut until lately no n knew
why. Today we know that dirt and
disease often are closely connected,
because dirt generally is not merely
dead earth, but rather a kind of liv-
ing earth, crowded with unseen and
almost countless germs of microbes,
some of which are dangerous, and even
deadly.
Dirty streets are dangerous because
the dirt in this case may cling to
shoes or other articles of footwear and
be carried from the streets into houses
where, either as fresh dirt or more
often as dry dirt (dust), 1t may find
It's way to foods or other articles, which
either enter or touch the mouths Of
members of the household.
Street dust also is dangerous when
dried up or %pulverized or turned into
dust which may be readily lifted and
blown about, thus finding its way per-
haps directly into the mouths of hui
man beings or through cracks or
crevices or open doors and windows
into human %habitations, and finally
into human bodies, with articles of
food or drink.
Dust Causes Many Diseases.
The connection between street dust
and a number of diseases now is clear
ly established. 1t is claimed that out
of As experiments on animals, the
germs contained in city and dust
caused infectious diseases in 80 cases.
Dust may so lower the vitality of
the mucous membranes by producing
an irritated condition of the respira-
tory organs that the development of
disease is made easy from the germs
deposited thereon.
Street dust consists of ashes,
ground-up steel, iron, stone and as
phaltum; house and store ~sweepings,
pollens of plants, excrementS of
horses, dogs and birds, dried sputa,
dead pulverized insects, pulverized
earth, plaster and cement, earth from
street excavations, SCOT from chimneys,
debris from fruit stands, garbage and
even human excrementS, which in
crowded regions frequently are voided
by children or adults in alleys and ILL.,
lighted streets.
This filth is being whirled into our
cars and other vehicles, while we walk
or drive; into our homes, offices, fac
tories, theaters, churches and stores
where meats, fish, fruit, vegetables,
breadstuffs, cake. pastry, candies, con-
f~ectiOnery, ETC., form a final resting
place for this germ-laden filth. 1t also
settles on walls, carpets, curtains,
clothes, and then is set freshly into
circulation with each and every dust
ing and sweeping.
Germs Plentiful in Food.
1t is still easier to understand why
water which contains dirt or excreta
may be very dangerous, because in no
way are the germs of disease more
readily taken into the human body
than with food and drink.
Dirty milk is dangerous because the
dirt most often found in milk is ma
nure or else dirt from dirty barns,
or dirty utensils, or dirty milkmen
who have handled the milk with dirty
hands. Dirty hands are dangerous,
as human hands so very readily
almost everywhere, and thus only too
easily, become dirty-children, for ex-
ample, have soiled their hands, may
perhaps the next minute put their fin
gers upon their faces or into their
mouths, and thus carry dirt, and with
that the germs of disease directly into
the body itself. Frequent washing of
the hands is a great sanitary safe
guard.
Keep Streets Clean.
This dirt menace and nuisance Is
~preventable not only in the streets,
but likewise in our living and work.
ing places. Much house dust pollu-
ton may be avoided if the original
street lust were removed or allayed.
The remedy for abating street dust
in cities is thorough flushing of streets
with large amounts of water. In order
to make street sprinkling effective,
it either should be sufficiently album
dam to wash the dirt away into the
sewers, or if moderate amounts of
water are used, her it becomes inn
perative to put in the water some suit
able disinfectant.
Small towns should clean streets of
loose dirt, pack undersoil with roller
and oil carefully with heavy oil.
With a better insight into the dan
gers from dust, a real live interest is
awakening. Education has been tell
ing, methods are improving, the pub
lie has awakened to the dangers from
dust and filth. Every person should
do his part to assist in the eradica-
ton of disease from these dangerous
sources.
Dust then is not by any means or
in the main a mere nuisance and
our of public discomfort, but per-
force a menace and direct public dam
ger of deadly potentialitv.