Evening star., 1943-03-05
Air Service Command
Plans 10 Use 80 Pei.
Women Employees
Medical Facts Gained
Seen Important Aids
To Postwar Industry
BY HOWARD w. BLAKESLEE,
Associated Press Science Editor.

Associated Press Science Editor
PATTERSON FIELD, Ohio,
March 5.-The worlds largest in
dustrial organization, now COM
pleting its headquarters here, plans
10 use women for 80 per cent of it's
working force.
The organization is the United
States Army Air Service Command.
1t has several major depots in the
United States and a large number
Of subdepots The work is over
hauling planes, fitting some for
special Jobs in deserts, others for
the Arctic, and making modifica-
tions for missions like the Toxic
raid. Aircraft equipment is modi-
fed. Most of the job is military
secrets
But there is one angle, industrial
medicine. which is not a secret, and
which is likely to have a long
| lasting effect on American life.
Probably more than any other Or
ganization, this medical setup will
learn what to do about the health
of women in industry.
Subject Largely New.
The feminine subject is largely
new: First, in jobs which women
never did before in large numbers;
second, in mass psychology of fem
mime workers; third, in health prob
lens peculiar to housewives, mothers
and prospective mothers. who must
also work in factories. If history
can be relied upon for forecasts,
women will continue after the war
in large numbers in most lines which
take them in during the emergency
Furthermore, here, as most every
where, the reports are that women
do the jobs as we'll as or better than
the men
The percentage of women in the
Air Service Command is already
high, but not yet up to the 80 per
cent mark The aim is to release
men for military work. In this
area, where heads of families have
gone to war, the command has
issued brochure to husbands sug-
gesting that they invite their wives
to enter the commands employ
ment. II Il
The health experience of this
huge military industry is sure to
furnish useful information on both
men and women for the benefit of
private industry and of the inter
national unions which are actively
at work on employe health.
Covers Three Fields.
The health work covers three mair
nelds. One is fitting workers into
jobs they can do without too much
risk. Two is guarding their health
from industrial hazards. Three is
teaching them the fundamentals o1
sanitation and food handling, whicr
prevents epidemics.
Science is creating new compounds
so rapidly that medicines is con-
tinually meeting new sources of i'll.
ness resulting from workers associat-
ing with the substances The medi-
cal organization here lists the
fumes Of 81 chemical and II dusts
which are hazardous. Really the
number of dangerous fumes is much
larger due to combination of some
of the 63 with still other chemicals
The military doctors have to SET
up methods for quickly spotting the
one chemical, dust or other cause
among possibly 200. Great private
industries, the Public Health Serv-
ice and medical science all have been
at work on these problems for years
They started when doctors puzzled
as to the golden colors of the skins
of gold -beaters.
Principles Applied From Start.
The business of fitting men and
women into the right jobs is a much
newer industrial and medical ven-
ture. The Air Service Command is
the first huge organization which
has had the chance of applying
these principles from the very start
The sanitation program here
might surprise college graduate
1t deals with flies, cockroaches, rats,
mice, dishwashing, food handling
spread of bacterial infections, tuber-
culosis, personal cleanliness and
Venereal diseases.
Not a word is new Many families
have practiced all these health rules
for generations.
| But to any ss-section of the
American population, such as the
employees of the worlds largest in
dustrial organization, the practices
contain many new pointers. These
practices, if followed generally, would
sharply reduce most of the epidemics
! common in the United States.