_INFLUENCE OF OCCUPATION ON HEALTH._
Economic Importance of Health--Causes of Ill-health--TEXTILE
TRADES--COTTON: Steaming, Sizing, and Fluff--Children:
Dr. Tarrop’s Report--LINEN: Dr. Purdon’s Report--Deaths
of Belfast Mill-workers--Mortality among Women--SHODDY,
SILK, and LACE--OTHER TRADES--POTTERY MANUFACTURE--WHITE
LEAD: Examples of Injurious Effects--Effect on
Offspring--Greater Susceptibility of Women--White Lead in other
Manufactures--LUCIFER MATCH TRADE--VENTILATION IN FACTORIES.
§ =Economic Importance of Health.=--The economics of industry from
the point of view of wealth have quite a literature of their own;
but the more vital standpoint of health has been almost entirely
overlooked by the economist, the sociologist, and the physiologist.
It is a singular oversight, for one would have thought that the
conservation of industrial energy was a tolerably important element
in the field of production. But, along with certain other large
assumptions, we seem to have reckoned upon an inexhaustible supply
of labour. It may be considered somewhat fanciful to assume anything
else when in most trades the supply of labour exceeds the demand, and
machinery increasingly takes the place of physical labour. The number
of the labourers who present themselves is not, however, the only
matter for consideration, the quality of their labour is of the most
material importance. It is a matter of the greatest moment to secure
well-developed and healthy people for the industrial army.
§ =Causes of Ill-health.=--The main causes of industrial ill-health,
which apply equally to men and women, though with even greater
intensity to the latter, may be classified under two heads;--causes
which are incidental to the nature of the work itself, and injurious
circumstances connected with its surroundings. Under the first head
would come cases of poisoning from handling or breathing or absorbing
in some way the poisonous matter given off from material that was
being worked up; the inhalation of “dust”--a generic term which may
suffice to express an almost infinite variety of particles of a more
or less injurious character generated in working up textile fabrics
and in the various processes of manufacturing and finishing metallic
commodities; and, thirdly, the contact with noxious gases and vapours
which are encountered in not a few industries. Under the second head
would come all matters connected with the surroundings of the mill or
workshop, such as the extent to which fresh air is admitted and foul
air driven out, the cleanliness of the workrooms, the extent to which
gas is burned, the heat that has to be faced, whether from exposure to
furnaces, to the hot, moist atmosphere produced by hot water apparatus,
or by machinery, or from over-crowding. We should have to range more or
less under both heads such incidents of occupation as sedentariness, or
strain and pressure, as these may be partly inherent in the occupation,
and partly the result of custom, and therefore not necessarily
connected with the processes of the work to be performed.
But in considering women’s work we have to take into account not only
the immediate effect upon the worker, but the indirect consequences
that may follow from injury to the system; and here we are brought
almost at once into contact with all the grave questions connected with
the subject of married women’s labour. As to the extent and gravity of
the injuries to health arising from the general causes indicated, there
is no question whatever. The reader who wishes to ascertain for himself
full particulars as to diseases of occupation cannot do better than
read the work by Dr. Arlidge, in which he breaks the ground on this
immense subject. He will find no less than ninety occupations specified
as dangerous because of the amount of dust disseminated, and an equally
large category of trades in which the women employed suffer in one way
or another from contact with harmful materials, from emanations, or
from muscular or nervous troubles contracted in connection with their
work.
§ =Textile Trades. Cotton.=--If we glance at some of the processes
connected with the textile trades, we shall be able to form some
idea of what their effects are upon the operatives. The manufacturer
in Burnley or Blackburn who steams his cotton in the weaving of
it produces a given result not only upon the fabric but upon the
operative, and the same statement applies to the process of sizing, of
which steaming is a subsidiary function. Both processes are entered
into for the purpose of weighting the cotton-cloth, which is sold
by the pound. The compound known as size is made up of chloride and
sulphate of zinc in conjunction with tallow and china clay, and this
size dust gets powdered over the operatives and finds its way into
their lungs. The temperature often exceeds 90° F. in the weaving sheds,
and the moist heat generated by the jets of steam is excessively
trying. In many weaving sheds the damp accumulates on the floor
and induces rheumatism and other troubles, and the clothes of the
women employed become saturated. So the adulteration of cotton cloth
carries with it the adulteration of human health and the break-up of
constitutions, and results in consumption, bronchitis, rheumatism, and
general depression of vital force. Again, in other branches of the
textile trades quantities of fluff and fine fibrous dust are generated,
and the workers must take their chance of its getting into their lungs.
This is especially true of the jute manufacturing and rope making
industries. It is not necessary here to enter very closely into the
technicalities of manufacturing; everyone will understand that the
preliminary processes of textile work, the “combing” and “carding,”
as it is called, are bound to set free quantities of dust, whilst,
later on, the heat and damp which prevail in much of the spinning and
weaving are the main health factors to be considered. For those who
live out of sight of this great industry, never hearing the rattle of
the clogs over the roads in the early morning, at the dinner hour, and
again when the bell rings for ceasing work; who only know from passing
them in the train the look of the huge and brilliantly lighted mills,
it may require some effort of imagination to realise the importance of
these matters to the operatives, who for 56½ hours every week are to a
greater or lesser extent working under trying conditions.
§ =Children.=--We must not forget too that for half a week many
thousands of young children are working in these places exposed
to precisely the same conditions; and besides the half-timers who
gravitate between the mill and the school many children of very tender
years spend the time when their whole future depends upon healthy
conditions from six o’clock in the morning till five o’clock at night
in the mills. If the work is trying for adults, what must it be for the
half-timers and young whole-timers? On this point Dr. Tarrop, one of
the certifying surgeons, has made some valuable researches, and I give
below his diagnosis of two thousand factory children examined by him.
§ =Dr. Tarrop’s Report.=--“Of the first two thousand cases
noted 1771 may be described as specimens of the ordinary
factory child, and I separate them into three classes--341
superior, 1106 medium, and 324 distinctly below average.
[Lancashire average, _nota bene_.] As to the rest of the
2000, 151 were really fine children, of whom twenty-one were
excellent examples of humanity, weighing 130 lbs., 126 lbs.,
and 120 lbs. respectively. The balance of the 2000--78 in
number--were a feeble folk, amongst whom were some eight
veritable pigmies, ten to thirteen years old, and not scaling
fifty pound a piece. It must be borne in mind that the medium
average of Lancashire factory children is not equal to the
average elsewhere. The latter standard is hardly reached by
the 341 children described as superior, while the medium
division is greatly below the standard of good health. This
is much more distinctly marked amongst children of thirteen,
‘full-timers,’ who have passed some years in the factory, than
it is in those of ten years of age. Of sixty healthy children,
averaging thirteen and a half years, and taken as they came
(thirty-one girls and twenty-nine boys), the average weight
was seventy-four pound, or eighteen pound below the average of
good health elsewhere. The lower division of 324 included many
defective and diseased cases, and of course the seventy-eight
residuum were poor indeed. The cases of defective or diseased
children numbered 198.” He appends to these numerical
particulars the observation that “Factory work is not so
excessively laborious, it is the heat, impurity, and dust-laden
state of the atmosphere that injures health. The promising
child of ten degenerates into the lean and sallow person
of thirteen, and this progress is continued until a whole
population becomes stunted, and thus the conditions of life
in factory towns become a real source of danger to England’s
future. In addition to the loss of physique it is instructive
to note the deterioration in personal appearance. Out of the
2000 children under notice only sixteen could be described
as handsome, and of these the larger portion were girls from
Ireland.”
§ =Linen. Dr. Purdon’s Report.=--The conditions in the linen trade, the
head-quarters of which are at Belfast, are similar in kind to those in
the cotton trade. Careful inquiries were made nearly twenty years ago
by the late Dr. Purdon, certifying surgeon of Belfast, who has devoted
many years of his life to this investigation. He states that--
“The skilled operatives amount to 25,759, and out of this
number only five arrive at 70 years, and only one, a weaver,
has been working 55 years (hand and power-loom).… Another
class, to which I would draw special attention, is the
_carders_, whose life averages 45·7, and the average length
of time employed as such is only 16·8 years. I may mention
that if a girl gets a card at 18 years, her life is generally
terminated at 30 years.… The next class that suffers greatly
from the pouce is the _preparers_, and the average time that
they work is 28·7 years, and the longest time that any have
been employed in the department is 48 years. I may say that
when the workers that are employed in the unhealthy departments
begin to feel that they are suffering from affections brought
on by their employment, they at once select (if they can)
the healthier processes, but the chest disease has already
made too much progress, and their lives are only prolonged
for a short time. The departments generally selected are the
weaving, winding, and reeling. The _dressing_ department is
… of special importance. The room … requires to be kept at a
very high temperature, varying from 90 to 120 or 125 according
to the character of the fabric. On account of the great
heat, no one under 18 and not free from chest affections is
engaged, and as it is considered that their days are shortened
by several years they are paid very high wages. It is seen
from the tables that the average time of employment is only
16·6 years, and only one has worked for 30 years; they suffer
greatly from the unhealthiness of their employment. I would
recommend in addition to my former recommendations that the
temperature of the mills should be especially attended to, and
that at three o’clock each day steam fans should be set on (if
the temperature has increased much), as the system that has
been working for so many hours in an atmosphere of so high a
temperature is still further exhausted by an increase of heat
as well as by prolonged labour in the same; and also that males
should be employed at the cards.
“AGE OF ‘OLDEST WORKERS’ IN FORTY-TWO MILLS
AND EIGHT COUNTRY MILLS.
AVERAGES. DR. PURDON’S TABLES.
Town. Country.
Roughers 46·4 46·1
Sorters 52·7 56·4
Carders 44·9 46·5
Preparers 48·4 57·4
Spinners 44·8 49·1
Winders 45·3 65·7
Weavers 46·2 50
Warpers 40·2 36·7
Dressers 45·8 51
Reelers 52·6 55·5
----
46·73
TEMPERATURE.
JUNE 21ST. MONDAY. | TUESDAY. | WEDNESDAY.
8 1 5 | 8 1 5 | 8 1 5
a.m. p.m. p.m. | a.m. p.m. p.m. | a.m. p.m. p.m.
Weaving Shed 72 82 87 | 74 79 86 | 75 82 86
Dressing Shop 98 106 106 | 98 104 107 | 97 111 106
| |
THURSDAY. | FRIDAY. | SATURDAY.
8 1 5 | 8 1 5 | 8
a.m. p.m. p.m. | a.m. p.m. p.m. | a.m.
Weaving Shed 74 82 84 | 72 85 85 | 77
Dressing Shop 95 103 105 | 101 108 111 | 98
| |
MONDAY. | TUESDAY. | WEDNESDAY.
9 3 | 9 3 | 9 3
a.m. p.m. | a.m. p.m. | a.m. p.m.
Outside Linen Hall 60 65 | 56 68 | 58½ 65
Inside Linen Hall 59 65 | 58 63 | 60 63½
| |
THURSDAY. | FRIDAY. | SATURDAY.
9 3 | 9 3 | 9
a.m. p.m. | a.m. p.m. | a.m.
Outside Linen Hall 60 64 | 60 44½ | 62
Inside Linen Hall 59½ 61½ | 58 62½ | 61½
“THE MORTALITY OF FLAX, MILL, AND FACTORY WORKERS.
“It will be perceived that the flax manufacturing operatives
suffer far more from phthisis and diseases of the respiratory
organs than the other two classes--_i.e._ the rest of the
artisan and labouring population, and the gentry and mercantile
classes--nearly three-fifths of those that die annually being
taken off by diseases of the respiratory organs, while in the
other two classes the average amounts to about two-fifths.
The death-rate among those employed in the preparing rooms is
exceedingly high, being thirty-one per thousand; few of those
employed in these rooms live beyond sixty years. The reason
that the machine boys appear to suffer so little is that when
they become ‘poucey’--_i.e._ asthmatic--from flax dust, numbers
of them leave the mills on account of suffering from chest
affections, and go to other trades, where they linger out a
diseased existence, or die from phthisis, and their deaths have
been placed in the second class.
“In the machine and preparing rooms the atmosphere is
constantly loaded with the flax dust called ‘pouce.’ … The
irritating quality of the dust is felt upon the throat, which
soon becomes dry. This irritation gradually creeps into the
lungs and produces chronic inflammation of the lining membrane,
which soon manifests its presence by the worker being attacked
each morning with a paroxysm of dyspnœa and coughing. The
dyspnœa is sometimes so great that he takes hold of the table
of the machine in order to enable him to get over the attack
more easily. This state is so well known that when a worker is
seen suffering so he is said to be ‘poucey.’ Those employed in
the roughing, sorting, hackling, and preparing of flax suffer
from this affection, and in the great majority of cases die
from phthisis, &c.… The spinners are frequently attacked with
vertigo and fainting, and many accidents have occurred by their
falling on the machinery. They also suffer from varicose veins
and œdema of the ankles.” After describing the “mill fever”
consequent on first employment, Dr. Purdon adds: “A peculiar
eruption also attacks the uncovered parts of the body. This
I call lichen. I have never seen an adult affected with it.
The cause is said to be the effect of the flax water on the
young person’s skin.” He recommends that no half-timers be
employed in the unhealthy processes, and that those who are
so employed should be at least fifteen years of age, healthy,
and well developed; a thorough system of ventilation should be
carried out in these rooms; the wearing of the Baker respirator
made compulsory; a quarterly inspection of the mill by the
certifying surgeon, who should see the effect the work has
on the constitution of those engaged, and, if suffering from
incipient disease, they should be obliged to cease working;
also there should be an examination on every fresh engagement.
“In order to lessen as much as possible the number of deaths
that occur among children, each mother ought not to be allowed
to resume work for at least two months after the birth of her
child, and then should be obliged, when going to work each day,
to bring her child to a public _crêche_, paying for its support
a certain sum per week. She at present pays an old woman who
farms them. The _crêche_ ought to be visited weekly by the
certifying surgeon, who is to inspect each child, and if he
finds any to be suffering from want of maternal nourishment,
or from disease, he is then to send a printed notice to the
employer of the mother, stating that she is required to take
care of her sick child. She is not to be allowed to return to
her work until the child ceases to require her attention. The
_crêche_ to be under Government inspection.”
§ =Deaths of Belfast Mill Workers.=--Matters are substantially the same
to-day in Belfast as they were when Dr. Purdon wrote. The factories
were under the Act then as they are now, and, with the exception of
raising the age of half-timers and fixing the limit of a month after
confinement as the period during which a mother may not be legally
employed--amendments which apply to every branch of textile and
non-textile industries--no changes of any importance have been made.
I am enabled to give here the mortality returns extracted from the
Belfast register of the deaths of mill-workers during the year 1891,
and they will show in the most convincing manner the effect of this
occupation upon health.
--------+--------------------------------------------++-----------------
| CAUSES OF DEATH. ||
| ________________/ \________________ ||
| / | \ || OTHER CAUSES.
AGE. | Phthisis. | Respiratory Diseases.||
+----------+----------+-----------+----------++--------+--------
| Male. | Female. | Male. | Female. || Male. | Female.
--------+----------+----------+-----------+----------++--------+--------
10 | -- | -- | -- | -- || -- | --
11 | -- | -- | -- | -- || -- | 1
12 | 1 | -- | -- | -- || -- | --
13 | -- | -- | -- | -- || -- | --
14 | -- | 5 | -- | 1 || -- | 1
15 | 1 | 7 | -- | -- || 2 | 1
16 | 3 | 14 | 2 | 1 || 1 | 5
17 | 1 | 13 | -- | -- || 1 | 6
18 | 3 | 17 | -- | 3 || -- | 4
19 | -- | 17 | -- | -- || 1 | 6
20 | 2 | 11 | -- | 1 || -- | 7
21 | 2 | 14 | -- | 1 || 1 | 5
22 | -- | 9 | -- | 1 || -- | 8
23 | 1 | 5 | -- | -- || -- | 2
24 | 2 | 12 | 1 | 1 || -- | 4
25 | 2 | 6 | 1 | 1 || -- | --
26 | -- | 7 | -- | 2 || 1 | 2
27 | 1 | 9 | -- | -- || -- | 3
28 | -- | 5 | -- | 2 || -- | 1
29 | -- | 10 | -- | 2 || -- | 2
30 | 1 | 5 | -- | 4 || -- | 6
31 | -- | 6 | -- | 2 || -- | 3
32 | -- | 4 | -- | -- || 3 | 3
33 | -- | 3 | -- | 1 || 1 | 2
34 | -- | 4 | -- | 3 || -- | 3
35 | -- | 6 | -- | -- || -- | 2
36 | -- | -- | 1 | 1 || -- | 1
37 | 3 | 5 | -- | 2 || 1 | 3
38 | -- | 2 | 2 | 1 || -- | 2
39 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 || 2 | --
40 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 1 || -- | 5
41 | 2 | -- | 1 | 1 || -- | 1
42 | -- | 2 | -- | 4 || -- | 1
43 | -- | 1 | 1 | 2 || -- | 1
44 | -- | 1 | 1 | 1 || 1 | 3
45 | 2 | -- | -- | 2 || 1 | 4
46 | -- | 1 | 2 | 2 || 1 | --
47 | 1 | 1 | 2 | -- || 1 | 2
48 | 1 | -- | 4 | -- || 1 | 1
49 | 1 | -- | 1 | 2 || -- | 1
50 | 1 | -- | 1 | 5 || 1 | 3
51 | -- | -- | 1 | 1 || -- | --
52 | -- | -- | -- | -- || -- | 1
53 | -- | -- | 2 | 1 || 1 | --
54 | -- | -- | -- | 1 || -- | 1
55 | -- | 1 | -- | -- || -- | 1
56 | -- | -- | 1 | 2 || 1 | 2
57 | -- | -- | 1 | 1 || -- | 2
58 | -- | -- | 3 | 2 || 1 | --
59 | -- | 1 | -- | 1 || 1 | --
60 | | | | || |
and | | | | || |
upwards| -- | -- | 11 | 11 || 18 | 20
--------+----------+----------+-----------+----------++--------+--------
Total | 32 | 210 | 42 | 71 || 42 | 132
--------+----------+----------+-----------+----------++--------+--------
=Mortality among Women.=--It will be seen that of 413 women who died
in the course of the year, no fewer than 210, or more than one-half,
died of phthisis, and 125 of these were under the age of 25. Again,
there were 71 women who died from respiratory diseases, so that we get
a grand total of 281 deaths amongst the women from pulmonary disorders.
How closely this terrible state of things is connected with the nature
of the occupation may be judged from the following extract from the
report of the Medical Officer of Health for Belfast for the year 1892.
Commenting on the fact that of the 6,537 deaths registered during
1891, 1,017 were attributable to phthisis, and 1,784 to disease of the
respiratory organs, Dr. Whitaker remarks:
“As is well known, a large proportion of our working class
population is employed in mills and factories, and I would
point out that the nature of their employment must cause
any of them having a predisposition to chest affections to
be ready sufferers therefrom. Breathing, as they must do, a
close, heated atmosphere, laden with particles of flax-dust,
fibrous and other matters irritating to the lungs; going from
thence directly, it may be, into the cold, damp, or frosty air,
poorly and lightly clad; often too young--especially the female
workers--to bear the exposure to which they are subjected, it
is scarcely to be wondered at that the mortality from these
diseases is as great as it is. There is little doubt but that
any arrangement by which these changes of temperature could
be made less frequent or less trying would be attended with
considerable benefit to the health of the workers. Unhealthy
occupations principally affect the respiratory organs. The
dust of the flax in the manufacture of our staple industry is
a serious cause of bronchitis and phthisis, and should lead,
if possible, to greater supervision in the ventilation or
filtration of the air in our large spinning mills.”
The sickness in the linen and cotton trade is attributable to various
causes. There is the dust which rises from the material; the heat and
watery vapour; the dust from the Cornish clay which is used in the
weaving departments for sizing; the long standing; and the stooping
position which has to be maintained in some departments. And if we
add to these the strain on the attention throughout all the hours
of monotonous work, the great noise, and the bad air poisoned with
over-crowding and poor ventilation, we shall agree with Dr. Arlidge
that we have cause enough here for disease. Accidents abound in these
great mills, where the machines in rapid motion are placed so closely
together that the workers are constantly in danger from loose gearing,
and flying shuttles from the looms in motion often cause the loss of an
eye and sometimes even of life.
=Shoddy, Silk, and Lace.=--The manufacture of shoddy is attended by the
production of an amount of dust that is injurious to the operatives’
health, and the effluvium given off from the rags is another
excessively trying feature of this trade. Those who are engaged in it
almost invariably have to pass through the ordeal of what is known
as “shoddy fever,” a disagreeable though not dangerous illness, the
symptoms of which usually last for at least a week, and disappear as
the worker grows accustomed to the presence of the dust. Silk weaving
is on the whole the healthiest of the textile trades, though here we
find a process, which is resorted to also in some departments of the
cotton trade and largely in lace-making, which is most prejudicial to
health; it is known as “gassing.” This process consists in passing
the threads very rapidly through gas jets, the object being to burn
away any slight irregularities. Medical evidence shews strongly the
evils which befall the operatives who have to spend their time in an
atmosphere highly charged with the products of gas combustion, full of
fluff and exceedingly hot. The operatives in the lace trade, which
is carried on mostly at Nottingham, suffer in an especial degree from
“gassing.” There is not sufficient space at my disposal to go into the
numerous family of trades in which the worker is liable to suffer from
dust given off; but amongst them are carpet-making, hair-dressing, the
flock trade, and those departments of the upholstery trade in which
fluffy material is used. Unfortunately the drawback noticed by Dr.
Arlidge of the lack of precise medical evidence in the cotton trade
exists also in these industries.
=The Potteries.=--So far we have been considering dust of vegetable
origin; but this forms only one group, although it is with this group
especially that women are concerned. In the pottery trade, however, the
workers are exposed to mineral dust, and in this trade women are very
largely engaged. Experts differ somewhat in their view of the relative
injury caused by organic and inorganic dusts, though it seems to be
agreed that where the material is chiefly of a gelatinous character the
harm done is comparatively trivial. But we need not examine closely
into these matters, for the statistics of death and disease furnished
by the Pottery District are conclusive as to the injuries inflicted.
To a lesser degree women are employed in the subsidiary branches of
the Sheffield trades, but in this case it is the men who bear the full
brunt of the injury. Men and women work in the pottery trade, and the
dust given off is of such a fine character that it finds its way into
every corner of the factory. Thus women who may not be immediately
employed in the finishing processes which are attended to by men, may
still receive their share of the fine white penetrating powder. But
in certain parts of the work, and those the most dangerous, women
only are employed. Such are the china-scourers and the towers. It is
the towers’ business to put a smooth surface on the dry ware, which
is set in rapid rotation whilst sand paper or some other medium of
the kind is applied. The result is that in the course of the day the
workers get powdered all over with the dust that is given off, besides
inhaling a considerable quantity. Where no fans are at work to draw off
this dust the consequences are terribly destructive, and the tower,
unless she happens to be a person of exceptionally fine constitution,
succumbs in the course of a few years, sometimes of a few months, to
the accumulation of fine particles in the pulmonary passages. Even
where a fan is at work the presence of the white powder may be detected
on the person of the worker, and as the dust is constantly blown by her
from the ware, some portion of it is inevitably inhaled by the act of
inspiration. Dr. Greenhow, who was sent by Sir John Simon, the medical
officer of health for the Privy Council in 1861, to report on the
potters’ diseases, wrote as follows about the china scourers, and the
conditions to-day are precisely the same as they were then:
“China scourers remove loose flint powder from the baked
china, and in doing so, partly by brushing, partly by rubbing
with sand paper, they send much flint dust into the atmosphere
about them--a dust which is lighter and floats more obstinately
in the air in proportion as the earthenware is fine. This dust
inhaled into the lungs of the workpeople is a terrible irritant
to the bronchial surface which it invades. The women (for the
occupation is a female one) soon get habitual shortness of
breath, with cough and expectoration; very often they have
bleeding from the lungs, sometimes also from the nose, and
their chronic disease is from time to time accelerated by
more acute catarrhal attacks to which they are particularly
subject. Comparatively few china scourers continue long at
the employment; those who continue at it become sooner or
later asthmatical, those who relinquish it in time are said
occasionally to regain perfect health, but for the greater
number the mischief is reported to be irretrievable. Against
the danger of this occupation scarcely any provision has been
made. A scourer who had worked eight years, and was suffering
from chronic bronchitis, said that four other scourers who
were employed in the same room had died from the effect of the
occupation since she had commenced it, and that a fifth was
then at the point of death. In a third pottery, a woman who had
worked ten years at the occupation asserted that about twelve
other scourers in the same shop had died since she entered
it. Out of thirteen china scourers belonging to six or seven
different potteries, whose evidence was taken, only four were
in good health; nine were suffering in consequence of their
occupation.”
The evils caused by the dust are aggravated by the very close and
stuffy atmosphere in which much of the work is carried on.
=White Lead.=--We come now to consider some of the effects caused by
working poisonous materials. Foremost among these come the trades into
which lead enters. By some strange and perverse fate the manufacture
of this deadly commodity is, so far as this country is concerned,
undertaken largely by women. This is due in a great part to the fact
that their labour can be procured more cheaply than that of men, and
that the operations in which they are engaged require but little skill
or training. In the white lead works of Newcastle, Sheffield, and
East London the women are employed in carrying heavy weights on their
heads, climbing ladders while loaded in the same way, and in fact in
performing those operations which are usually done by means of trucks
and hoists and other mechanical appliances. Anyone who has watched the
white-lead women passing backwards and forwards in their long, weary
trampings under their heavy loads, clambering up and down the ladders,
or passing the lead from hand to hand up a staging beside the stoves
where it has to be heated, must realise how thoroughly retrograde in
its tendency, as well as mischievous in its physical and moral effects,
is the existence of a class of cheap and unresisting labour which the
manufacturer can bend into any shape, or turn to any purpose that he
chooses. The most ardent advocates of perfect freedom for women in
matters industrial will scarcely defend the system of transport, and
transport of a highly poisonous material, which depends upon the cheap
supply of women’s heads, or the system of elevators which is kept up in
the same fashion.
But the physically exacting and degrading conditions of the work,
though unmatched in this and probably any other European country,
are as nothing compared with the action of the lead poison upon the
health of the women. No woman working in the dangerous processes of a
white lead mill can escape attack, for the subtle poison permeates the
system, resulting in the slighter cases in faintness, sickness, and
weakness; in the graver instances in lead colic, epilepsy, paralysis,
blindness, madness, or death. After all the precautions that have
been adopted so far under the Factory Act, it has been demonstrated
too clearly that the lead poison retains the upper hand and finds its
way into the system in the form of dust, which is either swallowed,
absorbed through the pores of the skin, or works in under the finger
and toe nails in defiance of baths and nail brushes and the swallowing
of sulphuric acid drinks. In spite of the establishment of a sort of
hygienic police, which is maintained in the best works with a view to
enforcing regularity in the matter of baths, lead poisoning remains
to-day a common feature in white lead works. During five years 145
cases have been treated in the Newcastle Infirmary, in addition to
many others at the Newcastle Union and Gateshead Union, and whilst in
Poplar Workhouse 30 cases were treated in 1882, there were 28 cases in
1892. From Newcastle comes the report that the greatest human wrecks
which pass under the notice of the medical charities are workers from
the lead mills, and when we examine the following biographies of lead
workers we shall hardly marvel at Dr. Oliver’s emphatic view as to the
pernicious character of this trade for women.
=Injurious Effects of White Lead.=--Barbara R----, a married woman,
aged thirty-three years, was admitted to the infirmary on December
4th, 1890, and died the following day from lead poisoning. She had
never worked in the lead more than a few days at a time. Eliza H----,
aged twenty-five, after five months working in the “stacks” was seized
with colic and was ill for seven weeks. On recovery she worked for two
years in the stoves, and then had another attack of colic. On getting
better she was seized with a fit on her way to work at six o’clock in
the morning, and was unconscious for fifteen minutes. Her comrades then
helped her into the factory, where she worked all day, feeling very
shaky. During the two months that followed she was better, but at the
end of that time was seized with convulsions while at work. She became
unconscious, and was taken to the workhouse hospital, where she had a
succession of fits, followed by total blindness, and death was narrowly
escaped.
=Effect on Offspring.=--Although the law prescribes eighteen years as
the minimum age at which women may follow this occupation, two cases
have occurred recently in which girls have died from lead poisoning
who were under the age. Nor does the suffering cease with the men and
women who work in the lead mills; they bequeath an awful legacy of
sickness to their children--an amount of suffering which is almost
disproportionate to their own. I came not long ago in contact with
a woman who had worked for the fifteen years of her married life
on the “pans” in a lead mill, a process which is considered to be
non-dangerous; during her employment she had suffered little, yet this
woman had never borne a living child. I give another dismal chronicle
in support of my remarks.[17] “C. E., twenty-seven years of age. There
was first a living child, then one miscarriage. She left the lead
works and went into the country, where a second child was born. She
then returned to the lead works and had two miscarriages. M. W., aged
thirty-nine, a lead worker for eighteen years, has had twelve children,
of whom four are now living. The remaining eight died at ages varying
from five days to four, six, and fourteen months, in convulsions. She
has had in addition five miscarriages, three in succession. In the
case of Mary A----, aged forty years, whose mother too had been a
lead worker, we have a history of eight children, all of whom died in
convulsions.” In one form or another paralysis too is common among the
workers. It is sometimes acute and sometimes chronic, and its commonest
manifestation is in “wrist-drop,”--loss of power in the wrist. The
victim of “wrist-drop” is incapacitated from lifting or moving anything
or in any way using the hands, and this crippled condition sometimes
lasts for life.
[17] See DR. OLIVER, _Lead Poisoning_.
=Greater Susceptibility of Women.=--The greatest authorities on
the subject of lead-poisoning, notably Dr. Oliver, lay stress on
the greater liability to lead-poisoning which women show over men.
Not only do we find that women are more susceptible, but they are
susceptible earlier in life. Girls from 18 to 23 years of age are at
the most susceptible age, while with men the dangers of lead-poisoning
are greatest between 41 and 48. The fashion in which men and women
suffer differs also, for we note that, while young women suffer very
readily from “saturnian poison”--fall quickly victims to colic, and
recover to be again and more severely attacked--men may work for long
terms of years, suffering slightly and seldom, till they fall victims,
at the end of long service, to paralysis. It must be borne in mind,
however, that those women who have been the subject of Dr. Oliver’s
investigation have been brought more directly and constantly into
contact with the peculiarly dangerous processes of lead manufacture
than the men.
=White Lead in other Manufactures.=--But the actual manufacture of
white lead is only one and the first of the stages in this commodity’s
devastating course. We may trace its steps in the potteries, where
men and women in large numbers fall victims to the lead which is used
in the glazes; in the black country, where we find it applied to the
tin-sheet enamelling trade, which is now covering the railway stations
and other places with advertisements; and in the colour trade and many
other industries, to say nothing of that of painters and decorators.
Nearly 100 cases of lead-poisoning were treated in the Wolverhampton
Infirmary in 1892, the majority of which consisted of young girls who
were employed in the sheet-iron enamelling trade, and there have been
several cases of deaths in this industry of recent years.
=Lucifer Match Trade.=--Necrosis of the jaw is a disease of a
peculiarly horrible character, to be found in the match-making trade.
It is due to the use of phosphorus, and first attacks the jaw-bone,
working its way through the teeth and gums. Owing, however, to the
adoption of greater precautions and the substitution of other materials
for “white” phosphorus necrosis now counts fewer victims than formerly.
=Ventilation.=--But great as are the evils of trade diseases, these
are not general, and exist only in particular trades; whereas when
we turn to the question of factory ventilation and heating, and the
worker’s general environment, we find that in all directions health is
being undermined, and in nearly every occupation there is something
wrong. One of the worst evils of factory and workshop arrangements is
the absence of proper ventilation, and the consequent lack of a supply
of pure air. We may be met by the reply that the opposition of the
_employés_ is to a large extent responsible for the discomforts under
which they work, and that it is impossible to ventilate rooms properly
while the workpeople fill the ventilators with rags as soon as the
manager’s back is turned. Such stories as these belong to the same
class of anecdotes as those which detail the objection of the worker to
wearing some species of gag for keeping out dust, or to the incessant
repetition of the act of washing the hands or brushing the hair for
the removal of injurious particles, and they do not really affect the
general question. The fact is, that we are all creatures of habit more
or less, and if we are accustomed to working under certain conditions
the majority of us would be something more than human if ready to
preserve a high hygienic standard in face of constant daily exposure
to prejudicial surroundings. The sensible policy, therefore, is surely
not to neglect practicable remedies because of cases of individual
carelessness, but to recognise at once that the only effectual course
is to make the conditions on which the worker is so largely dependent
as healthy as possible. Besides, after all points of view have been
considered, there is a good deal to be said for workers’ objections.
Clumsy attempts at ventilation are largely responsible for the dislike
to fresh air which is to be found in many workshops; just as ill-made
respirators, which only succeed in checking free breathing without
excluding the dust or whatever it may be that is to be kept out, may
have induced a certain recklessness of precautions on the part of the
operatives in certain trades. But however that may be, until we come
to recognise that the hygienic condition of the factory and workshop
is a matter for the scientist and the community in precisely the same
way that the hygienic condition of the town is, it will be hopeless
to expect the maintenance or even the recognition of any industrial
standard of health. Employers are as much creatures of circumstances as
their workpeople, and it would be fatuous to the last degree to hope
for very much from the “moralisation of workshop environment.” If there
is to be any effective safeguard it must be found in the regulations
prescribed by the community as a whole, to which the enfeebling and
crippling of its workers represents a very real danger.