POISON DANGERS IN HOMES AND IN THE FACTORY

Greymouth Evening Star, 2 December 1950, Page 2

POISON DANGERS IN HOMES AND IN THE FACTORY

Two deaths of an unusual character occurred from poisoning at work during the past year, says “Health,” the official bulletin of the Department of Health. One was that of a man employed in a dry-cleaning establishment using trichlorethylene, and the other was that of a rabbiter using a liquid which rapidly vaporises called chloropicrin. Both of these" vividly illustrated the indifferent attitude common in many occupations towards known poisons. It is by no means uncommon to find cyanide salts lying around in a factory in quantities sufficient to kill a whole city, yet unlabelled and accessible.

Trichlorethylene dissolves grease rapidly, as does carbon tetrachloride. Hence both are very popular in industry and in the home for cleaning. Either substance can act as an anaesthetic, and in sufficient quantity as a poison. In fact, they are very similar in composition and action to chloroform. Treat them, therefore, with the same respect as you would treat chloroform. While a sniff or two won’t harm you, more can make you seriously ill, unconscious, or even cause death.

There is much careless handling of substances used to kill rodents, insects, spiders and other pests. By and large, a poison which will kill these will also, kill or seriously dam--age human beings if taken in a dose that corresponds weight for weight with that required to kill the rabbit. The rabbiter who died had heavily contaminated his clothing and breathed the vapour coming off for long enough to absorb a fatal dose. Label all poisons used at work or at home, and don’t allow yourself to grow careless from constant use of some poison, even if it’s a relatively mild one says the bulletin., i

Gonzales Beats Budge / . A vicious northerly wind did not prevent the visiting professional tennis players J. D. Budge, D. R. Pails, R. Gonzales, and F. A. Parker, from fully satisfying a. crowd of 1200 at Mitchell Park, Lower Hutt yesterday. As on their two previous appearances, Gonzales' beat Budge and Pails beat Parker in the singles, and the’big draw now appears,, to be a match .between Gonzales and Pails, who appears to be in .better touch than when in New Zealand two years ago. Scores were: —Pails beat Parker, 6-2, 6-2;; Gonzales beat Budge, <3-6, 8-6, 6-2; Budge and Pails, beat Gonzales and Parker, 3-6, 6-1, 8-6.