DISTRIBUTE DISEASE

Bruce Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 130, 21 April 1903, Page 2

DISTRIBUTE DISEASE

Street Cars as Disseminators of In" | fectlous Maladies. ; ■ ■■*-. . __ AgmxA Vitiated Air and Bxpecstotrwtiboaa Restd»r These OanrveyMuses FaruU-* lal Source* of Contacipni— ', Need ol Stta-iae^eat Rulesu In the larger cities- of this country the street car is as potent a faotor in 1 the dissemination of communicable diseases as many of those usually catalogued in the standard works of hygiene. In these larger centers of population the condition is one of an excessive number of passengers crowded into a limited, number of cars. In some cities this continues throughout the entire day, and in all of them during the morning and evening hours. During the period. of congested traffic, the cars are crowded to the limit, every seat being occupied-, and the aisles and. rear platforms literally packed with all classes of our variegated population, says the Interstate Medical Journal. The ventilation of these cars is inferior, both on account of inattention to this important matter on the part of the builders of this class of rolling stock, and. also because the passengers differ so widely as- to the proper temperature and circulation necessary .to their comfort. Tuberculosis is undoubtedly propagated through the medium of these, cars, which become infected by the promiscuous expectoration indulged in by consumptives, notwithstanding notices of warning. Hannum, of Cleveland, recently examined 25' specimens of sputum found in street cars (15 from the interiors and ten from the rear platforms) : the tubercle bacillus was present in three instances. Other gppcnmens showed the pneumococcus and the bacillus influenzae. ■>. These conditions, the person-to-per-son contract, and the breathing of vitiated air frequently laden with contagious exhalations and with dust from dried sputum, are most favorable to the distribution of contagious diseases. Of course, it is only problematical as to the number of smallpox cases which® were infected through these conditions during the recent epidemic, but it is certain that but few better opportunities of infection are offered than through the street-car contact of all classes. Other transmissible diseases can very easily be, and no doubt are, communicated in the same way. The solution of this problem is not easy. Street railway companies are not inclined to relieve the present situation without compulsion. Health officers, however, have authority over the sanitation of these public conveyances. This authority in most municipalities gives sufficient power to prevent undue overcrowding 1 of cars when such prevention would be for the protection of public health. When necessary, as in times of a general epidemic, such authority should be exercised. Under all circumstances regular disinfection of street cars should be practiced in an evident manner. In this way the cars can be made biologically clean, and the health of fie community better protected. There is just as much occasion for this procedure as there is for the disinfection of Pullman cars, now energetically practiced at different points. Investigation hns developed the fact that there is but one city in the country, Philadelphia, where any pretense is made of disinfection of street cars. The Union Traction company of that city disinfects its cars v.- ith carbolic acid. This possibly answers for the. killing of bacterial life on the floors and Avails of the cars, but does no crood for the contaminated places v., here dust has settled, and which nothing but a gaseous agent would reach.