The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1917-07-24
INDUSTRIAL. POISONS
USED IN EXPLOSIVES.
Four Thousand Men Employed in Thir
teen Months to Keep Up Two Hundred.

vi more than ordinary interest in the
present crisis is bulletin PIG, entitled "In-
dustrial poisons used or produced in the
manufacture of explosives" Just issued by
the United States bureau of labor statistics.
The study was made by Dr. Alice Hamilton
during nine months of 1916, the forty-one
factories visited being located in Massachu-
sets, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York,
New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Marv-
land, Virginia and Indiana, and EMPLOYING
about 10000 workers. Of these approx
mately 10000 were doing work exposing
them to polsons, and practically no women
girls, or boys were among this number
The explosives manufactured in these fac
tories are nitrocellulose or nitrocotton. in
Guiding pyroxylin and military guncotton.
smokeless powder, picric acid and ammonium
plcrate, nitroglycerin and dynamite, trintro-
coluol or int or triton, illuminate of mer-
curry, tetranitraniline or tina, tetranitrome-
thylanllln or tetryl, nitronaphthalenes, and
ammonium nitrate. Their production in
wolves the use of nitric acid sulphuric acid
benzol and toluol, anilin oil, chlorbenzol and
dlnltrochlOrbenzol, phenol or carbonic acid
Sulphurlc ether, mercurlc nitrate, and anvil
acetate, while in the course of manufact-
ure certain poisOns are evolved as the re-
suit of chemical reactions, these being OK
ldes OF nitrogen or nitrous fumes, sulphur
dloXlde, chlorine gas, and ethyl nitric
The character of the work required leads
to very high labor tournover, instanced by
the TACT that In one plant it was necessary
to employ about 1000 men during thirteen
months to keep up force of 200. On the
whole, wages are high and living conditions
poor In many of these places. In most of the
plants the men work three shifts of eight
hours; two shifts is the exception.
1t was impossible to obtain accurate fg
ures as to the amount of sickness and death
caused by work in this industry since the
war broke out. Many cases were never rec
ognlzed; others were noted by company phy-
slcians or insurance physicians who were un-
willing to give any information concerning
them; in some factories there was either no
medical care or it was inadequate; in other
factories records were so incomplete as to
render the data somewhat misleading. Bas
ed, however, upon physicians reports only.
although information as to other cases was
obtained, it was found that in twenty-eight
plants, In the space of about one wear, there
were 2,507 cases of industrial poisoning, of
which seventy-five were women. Of the to-
tai number of cases fifty-three were fatal
TWO OF these being women. About 55 per
cent. of the total cases and So per cent.
of the fatal cases were caused by nitrogen
oxides and nitric acid, while % per cent. of
all cases and 70 per cent. of the fatal cases
were due to trInitrotoluol, or int, which is
manufactured and made into charges for
high explosive shells
The reason nitrogen oxide poisoning or
"fume sickness" heads the list is that all
of these explosives are produced through
processes of nitration in which mixed acid
IS used, one of the ingredients being sui,
phurlc acid and the other nitric acid 100
per cent strong. The higher the nitration
the greater the danger from fumes. The
1900 to 1,400 men who suffered from these
fumes were employed in making nitrocellu-
lose or nitrocotton, picric acid or trinitro-
phenol, the nitrotoluoIs, nitrobenzols, nitron-
aphthalenes, nitroglycerin, and the nitric
acid needed for these processes