The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-07-23
new FACTORY DANGERS
THE TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORMATION BUREAU
By Frederic j. Haskin. Director.
Washington, ID. c.

milton plants. Many men and women
have been killed. In many cases the
cause of the explosion was KNOWN IL
others it was not, but in every case
an immediate investigation was made
by the plant-owners and all possible
precautions were taken ito prevent
recurrence of the catastrophe. Now
the plant owners are facing new
and ugly predetermined more diff
cult to solve than that of occasional
explosions.
1t has recently been found that dur
ing this same period of three years
thousands of workmen in n2unition
factories have been poisoned. Some
have escaped with merely skin erup-
lions, lung and bronchial Affections
and sore eyes; others have died. There
is the case of young girl nineteen
years old who was employed by fac
tory to dip explosive charges for shells
in liquid paraffin. After two weeks
this work she was transferred to the
office. A few days later her skin be-
gan to turn yellow, she VISA constant
ly nauseated and finally sank into
profound coma which ended in death
At the beginning, the cause of
these mysterious cases of poisoning
was not recognized. They were an
entirely new development to the aver
age American doctor, and apparently
the plant-owners understood them no
better. Then the United States de-
partment of labor put DR.. Alice Ham
ilton on the case. DIR. Hamilton is a
scientist of very high standing, and
almost as great sleuth as she is a
scientist. Moreover, DR.. Hamilton,
having studied the munitions indus
tries of other countries, knew before
hand what she was likely to find. She
wasted no time trying to trace the
fine Italian hand of the Germans.
The mystery was not much of a
mystery after all. There was no plot
or hidden clue. The workmen were
victims of the various chemical fun
that escape in the manufacture of
high explosives. Nitric acid, benzol,
phenoI or carbolic acid and illuminate
of mercury are all dangerous poisons
having a disastrous effect on the hu-
man constitution, yet these very chem
icals are absolutely necessary to the
munitions industry.
Doctor Hamilton has just issued a
report covering the details of her in
vestigation--a report that is exceed
ingly valuable from a scientific as
well as an industrial standpoint. She
first points out that the manufacture
of high explosives in the United States
grew up practically over night, with
out plan, without system and without
adequate provisions. We had always
made armament to a limited extent,
but we had never before made explo-
SiveS wholesale. Before the war we
imported benzol, toluo1, aniline and
carbolic acid; now we distil them
ourselves. Trinitrotoluol, or Int, one
OF the deadliest poisonS, was never
made in this country until we started
putting it in shells to be sent to
Europe. Thus in creating new in
dustries and undertaking new proc
esses, there were many things which
We did not know. Workmen were not
the only ones to suffer. Many chem
lists and engineers also lost their lives.
When Doctor Hamilton started her
investigation in the spring of 1916,
conditions were very bad. She visited
forty-one factories, employing alto
gether total of thirty thousand per-
sons whose work was directly con-
nected with the poisonous processes
used in making the explosives. 1T is
impossible to give accurate figures as
to the amount of sickness and death
caused by work in this industry since
the war broke out" she says, for the
information cannot be secured. Many
cases were never recognized; many
others were seen by company physi-
clans or insurance physicians, who are
unwilling to give any information or
tell anything about them, and in still
other factories, some of them employ
ing hundreds of men, there is either
no medical care or it is so inadequate
as to be of little use"
So DIR. Hamilton's list of patients IS
smaller than it should be, on account
of the lack of definite records, but
what data she has collected are suffi-
GENTLY startling to arouse every state
legislature to the enactment of certain
protective laws.
The first poisoning cases treated in
her report are those from nitrogen
oxide-known as cases of ''fume sick
ness" I'm the making of explosives,
DIR. Hamilton explains, "a mixed acid
is used for nitration. one ingredient of
which is sulphuric acid relatively
harmless) and the other nitric acid
100 per cent strong Extremely dan
gerous)." At least, this is the method
used in the majority of factories, SO
that nitric acid is the most common
form of poisoning. Nearly 1900 cases
of this poisoning alone were uncovered
by the investigation.
When a man first goes into an
atmosphere laden with the fumes of
this acid, he is conscious of choking
sensation; his eyes burn and he finds
1t difficult to talk. He soon gets used
to it however-so used to it, in fact,
that he will often stay on in a dan
gerously poisoned atmosphere long
enough to cause damage to the throat
and lungs, altho at the time he does
not realize anything more serious was
happening than choking from the
gas. Mild cases of "fume sickness
greatly resemble asthma, and they are
numerous, especially in hot weather.
In the summer OF 1910, one gun cOtIOn
plant employing 800 men in nitrating
used to have an average of twenty
men every twenty-four hours who had
| to go to the doctor with fume sick
ness. Often, tho, they would be cured
! by little fresh air and medical treat
\ ment and could return to work the
same night
A serious case of fume sickness is
not so easily cured. Either bronchi-
| tbs, pneumonia or tuberculosis usually
result. So great is the danger of tub
1 erculosis in fact, that one large ex-
plosives company will not employ re-
groes on this account, knowing that
| negroes are more subject to pulmon-
airy tuberculosis. Sometimes the di-
sease does not develop until some
time after the person has been ex-
posed to the fumes, so that the orig
| inal cause is lost sight of. Cases of
pneumonia have been known to de-
velop from % to 80 days afterward.