DUST FROM MANURES.

Matamata Record, Volume X, Issue 884, 19 December 1927, Page 4

DUST FROM MANURES.

CAUSE OF ILLNESS. i . , Views of <an Authority, Referring to an article that appeared recently in the Morrinsville Star concerning several serious illnesses that had been caused through inhaling the dust from artificial manures, an authority on the manufacture of artificial manures writes as follows:

“The fine dust from slag is, of course, injurious, especially to the lungs, and a . fair amount of trouble has been experienced -in the past through this. We cannot, however, recall any serious effects from the dust of ordinary fertilisers, excepting where ammonia mixtures have had burnt lime added to them, in which case the ammonia is* set free in the air and would be injurious to anyone inhaling a lot of the? fumes. But as burnt lime is very rarely mixed (and, of course, should never be mixed) we cannot see how the'fumes from the like of ammonia top-dress-ing would have any effect at ail! “ Sowing finely-ground Maura phosphate has also an injurious- effect, but it takes a good deal of’ this dust to hurt anyone. The nren working in fertiliser factories are never known to suffer in health from this cause, and' they are among these mixtures all day long and every day. 5 *