THE WORKERS' HEALTH

Evening Star, Issue 17924, 21 March 1922, Page 3

THE WORKERS' HEALTH

EFFECTIVE HOME CONDITIONS. Dr Rene Sands, in speaking at a united meeting of the League of Red Cross Societies and the International Labor Oihce, urcin" the importance of tho peace programme of the Red Cross, gave some interesting facts in regard to the health. ot tho world generally. He said that, while much was being done to improve health conditions during the eight hours of inmiatrial work, the sixteen hours unaccounted for were full of menace in many cases. In order first of all to discount the effects of labor, of industrial lite, and ol excess, bo quoted statistics referring to children between the ages ot seven and fourteen in England where for the la, fourteen years a really excellent system of school medical inspection has been m force Of seven million children of school-going one one million were seriously handicapped in their growth and education by physical and mental defects, and a seeord million were totally deprived of -'oca tow a result of disease or disablement, so that ono child out of every three was doomed to ignorance, suffering, and invalidity. ""Next that you -nav realise the appalling toll levied on human life,. let me take a small group of people- during the firstforty ve.ars of existence. Ten young women'are about to become mothers ;_ot tfiese only eight will 1 produce a living chi'd Twenty vears later two of these children will be dead. In another.twenty years onlv five of the group will nc.lett. of whom'two are healthy, the remaining three being more or less incapacitated. "In other words, there is over 50 pelcent, wastage of human life. This, mark you. not during tho period of unrest following on the war, but in peace time, in time of full prosperity, in the besteducated, best-organised States of Western Europe. ... What, in fact, does eacu disablement and each death actually represent? Apart from nil sentiment, they represent a machine idle in the workshop, an idle shift in the mine, an imperfectly ploughed field ; they represent the unproductive labor of an unskilled substitute; they entail sick pay—doctors' and chem;qts' bills—a familv first impoverished, then raoidlv facing into dire distress and misery, both in their turn generators of disease." It is important to emphasiso that these evils are for the most part avoidable. After developing this statement, Dr Sands gives the two mam causes: The inadequacy of the hygienic equioment, and the unhygienic habits of the people. Dr Sands remarked that it was almost impossible fo alter the habits of older people; but that an immense field of value'was opening among the young, and the establishment of junior Red Cross societies was a method for teaching tho younger generation how, to take care of themselves and their surroundings. He also urged the appointment of Health Department visitors, who would work much on the lines of district nurses, but with a backing from the Government in the way of stmport when they reported unhealthy conditions of life 'among the people. "The health visitor." said Dr Sands "requires long and careful training." and he mentioned with praise the Bedford College course. Specially to the trade union delegates he said that their organisations aimed at the increased welfare of the workers, and for this reason thev should come to the support of the Red Cross. In co-operation with the representatives of the Governments and .of the employers, they were vitally interested in the study of industrial hygiene. Supposing, however, that their task was accomplished, and that- all trades were conducted ■ under faultlessly hygienic conditions, would not their victory be seriously compromised if the worker during the sixteen hours spent outside the factory frittered away his 'health?