CHAPTER XIV. Preventive Measures Against Lead Poisoning--_continued_

PREVENTIVE MEASURES AGAINST LEAD POISONING--Continued

=Overalls and Head Coverings.=--Stress has been laid on the wearing of overalls and head coverings in processes giving rise to dust or to splashes of glaze or paint in special rules and regulations in the past. With the improvement that has taken place in exhaust ventilation, they have become less important. Indeed, the aim of all manufacturers and ventilating engineers should be to render processes so free of dust as to make them altogether unnecessary. Increasing knowledge of the insidious manner in which lead dust can arise has shown that from this point of view overalls of the cotton or linen material ordinarily worn constitute a real source of danger. Splashes of glaze dry on them, and at every movement involving rubbing of the surface dust is generated. Some operations almost oblige the worker to press the article worked upon against the chest, so that chance of inhalation of dust from this source alone is considerable. Taking them off creates dust, and after this is done a reprehensible practice exists of either shaking or beating them against a post. In large factories they are usually washed on the premises, and the water in which this is done will become a solution containing some lead in suspension. Hence, even when washed and dried ready for wear, overalls may not be quite free of lead. Apart from the general obligation recognized that an employer should provide and maintain everything necessary to guard against danger contracted in his factory, we think that the risk run by a worker in taking the overall home and washing it there is negligible, and offers advantages in the ultimate cleanliness of the overall over washing on factory premises. Laundresses shaking overalls prior to washing them have been known to contract plumbism.

Where work with the arms is incessant, as in the heading of yarn, overalls are burdensome, and for this reason and the fact that with efficient exhaust ventilation there should be practically no dangerous dust, the regulations for the heading of yarn enjoin provision of them only on written certificate of the Chief Inspector of Factories.

Protection for the clothing, however, where splashing is incidental to the operations, cannot be dispensed with. Hence either the overalls themselves or the front of them should be made of some light ventilated waterproof material, or a waterproof apron worn over overalls of the kind at present in use. Daily sponging would then take the place of washing.

If lead dust be visible on the hair of workers, there must be a defect in the conditions of work to be rectified by other means than cumbering the head. In our opinion, head coverings ought never to be necessary. We cannot think that an attack of plumbism can ever be precipitated by the amount of lead dust inhaled on brushing the hair.

A common provision in regulations for overalls is:

“Overalls shall be provided for all persons employed in lead processes, and shall be washed or renewed every week.

“The occupier shall provide and maintain for the use of all persons employed in lead processes--(a) A cloakroom or other suitable place in which such persons can deposit clothing put off during working hours, and separate and suitable arrangements for the storage of overalls required by regulation; (b) a dining-room, unless all workers leave the factory during meal-hours.

“All persons employed in lead processes shall wear the overalls provided ... and shall deposit such overalls and any clothing put off during working hours in the places provided under the regulations. The overalls shall not be removed by persons employed from the factory or workshop.”

General sense of propriety--and it is on this ground, and not from danger attaching to non-observance, that we press it--suggests that overalls should be kept apart from working clothes, and preferably outside any room in which a lead process is carried on. So long as actual contact between the two sets of garments is prohibited, we do not see objection to the same cloakroom sufficing for both. The best arrangement that we have seen is a room in which each worker has two lockers--one for the storage of overalls, and the other for clothing put off during working hours. This presupposes supervision and effective discipline. We think that all reasonable need in the provision to be made is met by numbered pegs on one side of the room or wide passage for clothing, and on the other pegs correspondingly numbered for the overalls. Means for heating and drying the clothes should not be overlooked (see Fig. 8).

=Meal-Room Accommodation.=--Wherever lead processes are carried on the provision of a mess-room is called for in a part of the factory remote from possible contamination from lead dust. This we hold on general grounds of cleanliness and self-respect, and not because we think the eating of meals in rooms where lead is used would noticeably increase the number of cases. The more conveniently situated in relation to the workrooms the mess-room is, the more will it be used. Set out briefly, the requirements of a mess-room are that it should be--

1. Well ventilated, warmed, and lighted.

2. Not less than 10 feet high, and with floor-space ample for each person likely to occupy it at any one time.

3. Have walls the surface of which is smooth and impervious to a height of at least 4 feet from the ground.

4. Have pigeon-holes or other arrangement in which each person can deposit his food separate from that of others.

5. Have means of warming and cooking food.

6. Be kept properly clean and dry.

No part of a factory becomes so unsightly in the absence of daily cleaning as a mess-room, especially where provision has only to be made for five or six workers.

Reid has suggested the following scale of floor-space per person in mess-rooms:

6 persons and under 10¹⁄₂ square feet per person. Over 6 and up to 12 7¹⁄₂ „ „ „ „ 12 „ 20 6 „ „ „ „ 20 „ 28 5¹⁄₂ „ „ „ „ 28 and any number 5 „ „ „

In a factory well known to us for manufacture of white lead there is a restaurant originally started in connection with the sick club of the factory. For fivepence the workman obtains a hot meal of meat, bread, and vegetables. Any profits go to the sick fund. Since this has been started improvement in the physical condition of the men has been marked; several cases of anæmia and malnutrition have entirely cleared up. No workman, as has already been emphasized, should commence work in a lead factory unless he has had a good meal--that is, unless there is some food at least in the stomach--particularly albuminous food, such as milk, cocoa made with milk, or café au lait. The most suitable foods generally for lead-workers are those containing proteids--meat, eggs, milk, cheese, and fatty foods. Acids--vinegar, pickles, and the like--are especially to be avoided.