The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1939-02-02
Womehs Indusfriuf
Injuries are Studied
By Womun's Bureau
Injuries To Most Women On
Jobs Are Needless. Says
Officials

Most women hurt on their jobs are
injured needlessly.
Examples of such preventable acci-
dents, cited in a. Women's Bureau, U.
S. Department of Labor, bulletin, re-
leased today, are: The death of a maid
from an infection of thumb that she
pierced with a fork, the death of a
janitress from an infected knee caused
by scratch in cleaning a stairway,
the beauty-shop operator burned fatal
ly when an electric dryer short-circuit-
ed, the woman who died as a result of
a coffee urn explosion, two women cir
Gus performers who fell to their deaths.
To find out how extensively women
suffer from work injuries, the
Women's Bureau collects periodically
such data as State agencies can fur
nish, and publishes series of reports
on the subject. The latest, entitled "In-
dustrial Injuries to Women and Men,
1882 to 1884," was prepared by Mar
garet r.. Mettert Of the Bureaus re-
search division.
The first step in accident prevention
is to obtain accurate facts about them,
the report points out. Information as
to the cause, the type and nature of
the injury, the industry, in which it oc-
ours, the age and sex of the injured
worker, constitutes the key to acci-
dent elimination. That such informa-
ton is valuable is indicated by the
fact that some States reporting acci-
dent data showed a decrease in indus
trial injuries even while more people
were being put to work. In the current
study 10 States furnished facts about
accidents to men and women during
one or more years of three-year per-
iod. Though this number Of States is
larger than ever before, accident data
still are inadequate and incomplete.
While as rule men are victims of
the most serious of injuries, as many
as 1876 women were fatally injured or
permanently and totally disabled dur
ing the period studied in the several
States. For the same three years New
York reported 1000 women with per-
manent disabilities and New Jersey
and Illinois each about 1000. In gen.
eral, from 1880 on, an increasing pro-
portion of the persons injured in in
dustry were women. In 1884 over 1,C0O
women were injured in each of 8 of
the II States reporting on numbers in
jured and the women who were hurt
in all the II States totaled over 10000.
Women's accident problems are diff
ferent in many respects from mems,
according to the study. For example,
injured women formed on the whole
a much younger group than did injur-
ed men. While in the various States
from Id to 80 percent of the injured
women were under 21, only from to
II percent of the men were so young.
The fact that on the average, working
women are younger than working men
accounts in part for this difference,
but it is still true that young girls
have disproportionate number of job
injuries in relation to their numbers
among all gainful workers. The report
shows further that infection follows a
very much higher percentage of
women's than of mems injuries. The
predominance of cuts, bruises, and
burns among women indicates that the
seriousness of women's accidents may
be successfully combatted by measures
to enforce the use of first-aid for every
injury no matter how slight. Severity
of many injuries could be lessened and
infection prevented.
Falls are a major cause of women's
injuries nd formed much larger
share Of women's than of mems dis
abilities A second major cause was
machinery and much larger proper
tion of injuries of women than of men
in all but one State-Iowa-were ma
chine-caused. Women had much small
er proportions Of injuries resulting
from handling objects than had men
and they were hurt to lesser degree
than men by falling objects. Vehicle
injuries, common to men, were of
minor Importance among the accidents
to women.
Textile mills were responsible for
from we'll over one-half to three -fifths
of all injuries to women in New Hamp-
shire in the years covered and from
three -fourths to we'll over one-third of
those reported in Georgia. Food
plants ranked first among manufacture
ing industries in which women were
hurt in Illinois, clothing factories in
Indiana and Pennsylvania, machinery
and vehicle factories in Michigan. The
principal number of injuries outside
the manufacturing occupations were in
the miscellaneous service group includ-
ing domestic service in Illinois, and in
hotels and restaurants in New Hamp-
shire. Almost one-eighth Of the injur-
les to Pennsylvania women were in ho-
tells and restaurants, and these indus
tries accounted for considerable pro-
portions of accidents also in Georgia,
and Indiana.
Though injuries to women received
on the job affect women as seriously
as like injuries affect men, the COM
pensation women receive in accordance
with State legislation is much less, the
study points out. The average woman
received we'll under three-fifths as
much as that received by the average
man i'm the fOur States renortinp m