The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1923-06-21
HEALTH NEWS
Ventilation Important Factor in
Healthy Living.

To keep on living everybody must
have sufficient air to breathe, and
to keep on being healthy this air
should be sufficiently pure and suf-
ficiently moist and sufficiently cool.
BY ventilation all these ends are
sought to be attained.
In the open air, away from nox-
ious gases, ventilation looks after
itself; elsewhere, particularly in
houses or in all closed spaces, 1t
must be looked after. No matter
how pure the air in such space
may be, any one who enters it at
once begins to pollute it with his
breath; and it will ultimately be-
come injurious to health unless 1T
is renewed either by natural means
(such as the wind) or by artificial
means.
Renewal is necessary, because
when breathing in" one takes away
something from the air (oyygen)
and when breathing out" one adds
something to the air carbon Diox
ide). Oxygen is taken from in
breathed air by the blood that cir
culated through the lungs and is
carried away to help the food build
up the body, keep it warm, and
energize it-give it power to move.
Oxygen constitutes about one-fifth
of the air and about one half of that
one fifth is breathed out, unchanged,
and may be breathed over again.
Carbon Dioxide is part of the
waste that is left over in the body
when oxygen and food combine to
build up the body, etc. 1t is picked
up by the blood, carried to the lungs,
and breathed out. 1t is poisonous
and Injuries the body when 1t Is
breathed in again.
Factories, churches, theatres, Of
fees. ETC. all need abundant supplies
of fresh air. Factories need them
most of all, for persons doing physi-
cal labor breathe faster than those
sitting quietly, and most factories
use more or less machinery, whose
fires use up (burn) oxygen and re-
lease carmon dioXide faster than the
breath of many men.
The simplest way of renewing
used air by a supply of unused air
is by opening the windows; but I'M
less these are very carefully placed
and supervised they seldom distri-
butte the air evenly and the often
cause. persons in one part Of, the
Workroom to suffer from heat and
bad air while those in other parts
shiyer and sneeze. Furthermore in
many factories the windows are con-
stantly being INSTRUCTED by ma
terials that are put there tempo
rarily" but are left there eternally.
However, in these days, the COM
plant committee of the workers can
usually be trusted to see to the
removal of such things.
If natural ventilation is insuffi-
cient the best way to renew the air
in factories is by the use of big
electric fans, SO placed as to draw
off the foul air, or to drive in the
fresh air or placed so as to do both.
Temperature and humidity (per
cent of moisture in the air. are also
closely associated with ventilation.
The body heat given off by persons
congregated in a workroom, church,
theatre or other buildings, raises the
temperature and increases the moist
ure. When the temperature rises
above SO degrees Z. and the hui
midity above so per cent, they cause
considerable discomfort; when they
rise higher they cause suffering, and
when they rise still higher, they
may cause heat stroke. In winter,
on the other hand, the heated air
in buildings is usually too dry;
often the humidity falls to 20 per
cent, which is lower than in desert.
Air as dry as this draws moisture
from the skin and from the mucous
membranes of the throat, nose and
mouth and irritates them. To be
comfortable, the humidity of a
workroom should be about so per
cent.
The ventilation of many factories
and offices depends upon factors
over which the workers may have.
little control. At home, however in
their rooms, they have fewer or no
other persons to consider and may
be able to insist on pure air, es-
pecially at night.
The idea that night air is un-