EFFECTIVE MASKS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 70, 20 September 1937, Page 7

EFFECTIVE MASKS

AGAINST ALL GASES

A BRITISH ASSURANCE

The assurance that civilian gasmasks would give protection against all types of gases at present known was contained in a Home O/Tifce letter which was read by Sir Ewen Maclean, chairman of the Science Committee, at. the annual representative meeting of the British Medical Association at Belfast, says the "Manchester Guardian."

This respirator (the letter stated) has been given the most exhaustive trials over a very long period against actual types of war gases which might be used, and it has proved highly satisfactory. The tests, in fact, were of the same order as are given to the respirators issued to the fighting forces, and the protection it gives is exactly the same, though not for such long periods.

The periods for which it will remain effective are considered in all the circumstances to be ample for the requirements of the civilian population, and it will give protection against all types of gases which so far as is known at present could be employed in war. These include the arsenical and smoke groups.

Certain assertions have been made that some smokes would penetrate the respirators in sufficient quantity as to force the wearer to remove his respirator. There is no foundation for these assertions. The respirator has been tested with concentrations of poison gas which could not under practical circumstances be reproduced in time of war. GOVERNMENT'S EXPERTS. The letter also stated that the Home Office did not agree that there was a sharp divergence of opinion , among competent persons as to the value oC the measures proposed by the Government for the protection of the public.

The Government (added the letter) has at its disposal expert scientists who have made what practically amounts to a life study of defensive measures against poison gas—a study backed by all the resources and facilities which the Government alone is in a position to make available for this sort of work. In addition, the Government has the services of a very great number of eminent scientists from all the universities who act in an advisory capacity and who are invariably consulted on all matters of high policy of importance.

The Government is entirely satisfied that the recommendations it has made are sound and practicable, and are based on the most exhaustive tests carried out under practical conditions.

The statement that the Government's plan afforded no protection for children under five years of age and that no precautionary measures were suggested was not accurate. The matter had been under close investigation for a very considerable time and various devices had already been produced which surmounted the fundamental difficulties associated with the physical as opposed to the psychological side of protection.

These devices, although perfectly satisfactory from the point of view of giving protection to babies, had not satisfied the authorities from the psychological point of view.

The simple gas-proofing measures advocated by the Air Raid Precautions Department had been proved to be perfectly satisfactory in all normal circumstances. Rooms, if properly gas-proofed in the way recommended, would give protection for a length of time which was^. considered to be adequate. ' ' "" :