WORKERS' HEALTH.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 32, 8 February 1939, Page 16

WORKERS' HEALTH.

IN FURNITURE TRADE. REMITS TO CONFERENCE. Several proposals designed to protect the health of workers in the furniture trade will be dfecuseed at the annual conference of the Furniture Trades' Federation, which is to be held in Christchurch on February 14. In this connection remits suggest that the conference should urge the prohibition of second-hand bedding and the use of second-hand materials in the making of upholstery. It is also proposed that steps be taken to ensure the installation of proper dust extraction machines in factories, and to have it made a breach of the Health Act to use methylated spirits containing pyrodine for french polishing. It was explained this morning by Mr. A. H. Dixon, secretary of the Auckland Frniture Trades Union, who, with Mr. J. Plunkett, will represent Auckland at the conference, the pyrodine is the colouring used in methylated spirits to make the liquid unpalatable to those inclined to drink it. The objection to

it was that it had a tendency to affect the eyes of the polishers. He personally had had no complaints with respect to the matter, but apparently there had been some in Wellington, from which city the remit dealing with the subject came.