Injurious Occupations.

Auckland Star, Volume XXII, Issue 95, 25 April 1891, Page 4 (Supplement)

Injurious Occupations.

It is well-known thab certain trades and professions are more obnoxious to life than others, and wo propose here to enumerate some of the more harmful, and the special dangers to which each is liable. All sedentary and studious occupations are injurious to health, and therefore to longevity ; for instance lawyers and clerks are short-lived, and so are literary men who le.;d very irregular lives and keep late hours. Lung diseases are most common among workers in an impure and vitiated atmosphere. Shopmen, especially drapers, whose work is confined to ill-ventilated rooms, frequently fall victims to phthisis and die early. This is caused in great measure by the dusb from fabrics and pigments circulating in the air. On this account), coal-miners Buffer from a special form of lung disease, with black expectoration, from the inhalation of particles of coal and soob from picking and blasting. The dust of grinding: shops has been found to contain large quantities of iron in a ebate of minute subdivision ; this being constantly inhaled produces the disease known as grinder's rot. Pin-pointers, stonemasons, potters, and obhers ore liable to peculiar forms of diseases of the air passages and lungs.

Many of these diseases could be prevented by the wearing of suitable respirators, but this is usually neglected by the carelessness or ignorance of the workmen. Gilders, and those who work with mercury in " silverising" mirrors often suffer from a form of paralysis and salivation known as mercurialismus.

Those who work in white-lead, likewise painters and plumbers, are well known to suffer from severe colic and a form of paralysis called 'wrist-drop.' This however, may arise from contamination of drinking water, and of food, quite independently of occupation. Artificial flower makers and arsenical workers are subject to symptoms of slow arsenical poisoning, which undermines the system very insidiously. Ulceration and necroiie of the jaw-bone is common among those exposed to the fumes of phosphorus, bub this danger has been leesened of late years owing to the introduction of amorphous phosphorus into the manufacture of matches, etc.

Bakers are liable to skin eruption from the constant irritation of a floury atmosphere, which is also dry and hot. Bakers are unhealthy and short-lived. Something similar happens to quinine manufacturers. M. Layet describes a very remarkable affection found in workers in soda factories —the teeth become scft and translucent, and break off close to the gums.