The Parma herald. (Parma, Idaho) 1903-1917, 1917-04-19
DISEASE AND
DIRT ARE
TWINS
Filth in Streets May Cause Your
Death, So Help as Much as
You Can to Clean Town.
See That the Children Wash Hands
and Face Before EatIng-and
Fight Files, for They're
Pestilent.
BY DR.. A. S. BARNES.

BY DR.. A. S. BARNES.
Dirt and disease are apt to go to
gether, but until lately no one knew
why. Today we know that dirt ant
disease often are closely connected
because dirt generally is not merely
dead earth, but rather 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 n
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 it's 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 46 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 pulyerized 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 i'll
lighted streets.
This filth is being whirled into our
faces by the wind, by motor and street
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-
fectionery, 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 |
ng and sweeping.
Germs Plentiful in Food.
1t is still easier to understand why |
water which contains dirt or excreta
nay be very dangerous, because in no
way are the germs of disease more
'eadily taken into the human body
han with food and drink.
Dirty milk is dangerous because the
lirt most often found in milk is ma
lure or else dirt from dirty barns,
n dirty utensils, or dirty milkmen
Who have handled the milk with dirty
lands. Dirty hands are dangerous,
S human hands so very readily
lmOst everywhere, and thus only too
asily, become dirty-children, for ex-
mple, have soiled their hands, may
erhaps the next minute put their fin
ers upon their faces or into their
louths, and thus carry dirt, and with
hat the germs of disease directly into
he body itself. Frequent washing of
he hands is a great sanitary safe
uard.
Keep Streets Clean.
This dirt menace and nuisance Is
reventable not only in the streets.
ut likewise in our living and work
lg places. Much house dust pollu-
on may be avoided if the original
rect dust were removed or allayed.
The remedy for abating street dust )
cities is thorough flushing of streets =,
18th large amounts of water. In order
, make street sprinkling effective
either should be sufficiently album /
int to wash the dirt away into the {
,wers, or if moderate amounts of n
alter are used, then it becomes i'm S
,ratiye to put in the water some suit D
lie disinfectant. t
Small towns should clean streets of v
ose dirt, pack Gndersoil with roller
Id oil carefully with heavy oil. [
With better insight into the dan [
rs from dust, a real live interest is a
5akening. Education has been tell Il
g, methods are improving, the pub. S
has awakened to the dangers from Il
st and filth. Every person should
his part to assist in the eradica- ,;
m of disease from these dangerous -
urCes. -
Dust then is not by any means or W
the main a mere nuisance and -
lrce of public discomfort, but per- \,
rec menace and direct public dan ~
r of deadly potentiality.
STAY AT IT! es