THE SEASON OF GOLDS

Evening Star, Issue 25768, 15 April 1946, Page 7

THE SEASON OF GOLDS

EEWARE STAGNANT WARM AIR (By the Department of Health.) The time of colds and 'flu and sore throats is approaching—late autumn, winter and early spring. It is the time of shut windows, keeping inside because of the cold or wet, heated buildings—in short, the time of less fresh air, and less fresh air and more infections are linked together. The school has more troubles at this period. In/winter, just as in summer, doors and windows should be used for ventilation. At play and lunch intervals the aim should be to flush the whole building with fresh air. In class time the windows should be manipulated to keep a flow of air through the room. The tendency is to try to warm >up the room by keeping out currents of air. The gentle flow of air is Hot only important for bodily comfort, it is also imperative to stop the spread of infections. Most of the winter ills and infectious diseases—colds, influenza, sore throats, measles, scarlet fever, etc., are contracted by inhalation. A child suffering from 'flu or measles scatters germs of the disease into the air around every time he breathes. If the classroom is poorly ventilated with still, warm air, these germs stay suspended on their droplet carriers, and may be inhaled by a class mate. But if the room is constantly flushed with fresh air, the germs are quickly wafted away and the room mates escape trouble. The office and the factory tellstories of stagnant warm air and epidemics of infectious troubles in the cold weather. It is the same story as the schoolroom.

The office, the factory, the workshop, will all have a minimum of trouble this coining winter if the connection between fresh air and dodging infections is remembered. If you want to have a lot of absenteeism and trouble again this winter, forget your summer habit of fresh air. If you do not, ventilate your rooms in spite of the cold.