Montana labor news., 1938-02-24
FIGHT ON lILI(0SIS
WINS Feminine AID
Miss Sara ]. Davenport Turns
DRY AS Dust" Subject Into
a Veritable Romance.
FEDERAL BUREAU WORKER
Her Researches in Control Of
Industrial Hazards Receive
World Wide Circulation.
By ELIZABETH LA HINES
From the New York Times

AACAAA bAlC ANCW LOAh LLAlCo
Prehistoric man, in his trade of
making stone implements, was re-
sponsible for the first industrial
hazard, according to Miss Sara J..
Davenport of the Bureau of Mines
at Washington. And if his lungs
suffered from the ravages of flint
dust and a SLOW fever" added to
his torment, there was nothing to
be done about it. For, until the be-
ginning of the present century, dust
as a c%ausation of disease had re-
ceived scant attention from scien-
lists.
Since that time, however, every
country where the earth's surface is
penetrated either in the normal
processes Of mining or in satisfying
the demands of progress, has made
exhaustive study of the effect and
prevention of %silicosis, the name by
which all dust diseases are unset
entifically known to the layman.
Free" silica, as a matter of fact,
from which the name is derived, is
the predominating factor in causing
a pathological condition of the lungs
which has assumed the Importance
of a major industrial hazard.
Miss Davenport, assembling and
editing the literature of dust dis
eases in collaboration with Daniel
Harrington, chief of the health and
safety branch of the bureau, has
made a veritable romance of a study
which could, in truth, be called dry
as dust"
Dust and Disease
From the time when Hippocrates
directed attention to the difficult
breathing of the metal digger" al
most 500 years B. c., men have ac-
knowledged a relation between dust
and disease. Out of a tireless search
of existing records Miss Davenport
has prepared a volume which, with
its classic references and its modern
application, is held by experts to be
a distinct contribution from the
safety branch of the Bureau of
Mines to the solution of a world
problem.
Previously Miss Davenport had
made a less exhaustive investigation
into carbon monoxide poisoning, in
which she traced the action of the
gas through a study Of Greek and
Latin literature. Suicide by Means
Of the charcoal brazier, she found,
was not unknown to the ancients,
and on this point, Julian the Apos-
tate furnished a few apt quotations.
The interesting thing about Miss
Davenport's work is that she is not
carrying on in the tradition of a
predecessor. The position she holds
at Washington did not exist, but has
developed with her ability to per-
form and create work. Even now,
on the pamphlets which go to the far
places of the world, as co-author she
is designated merely as principal
Translator, Bureau of Mines"
Began as Linguistic Clerk
With a view to becoming a teach
er, Miss Davenport majored in Ian
guages at the University of Mis-
souri,. She made the civil service
lists while she was waiting for a
teaching position and vas assigned
to the Federal Bureau Of Education
in Washington. She was, as she ex-
presses it, merely a clerk qualified
in modern languages" to satisfy the
civil service requirements but
through the classification act the
more dignified title translator" be-
came hers.
when the health division of the
Bureau Of Mines was organized, +"
Miss Davenport recalls, Il was
transferred to do secretarial and
translating work. In order not to
duplicate health studies that had
been made in this and other coun-
tries, search of the literature along
lines of contemplated Investigations
was considered advisable. My duty
was to abstract everything l could
find on the subjects selected, which
meant spending much time in the Ii
braries of Washington. The work
was fascinating and its application
seemed important and worth while
I did much of it after hours so as
not to allow my secretarial duties
to crowd out the more interesting
work"
Particularly fortunate has Mis-:
Davenport been in working in asso.
citation with MI. Harrington, chiei
of the safety branch, who fol
twenty-five years has devoted much
of his time to hazards of the Goa
miner in this country. Since the
dry drilling of coal is the chief Of
fender in causing dust diseases, hi
has worked ceaselessly to change
established customs in the Goa
mines. At present he is engaged OF
air-conditioning problems as
means of minimizing the danger O
silicosis. Many of his observation
have proved valuable in New Yorl
City's subway construction.
$4,000 Workers Affected Here
It is estimated in the Harrington
Davenport report that in New Yorl
City alone $4,000 workers IRE en-
gagged in dusty occupations. Thi