The Northern Advocate Daily TUESDAY, AUGUST 13, 1935. THE COST OF ILL HEALTH

Northern Advocate, 13 August 1935, Page 4

The Northern Advocate Daily

TUESDAY, AUGUST 13, 1935. THE COST OF ILL HEALTH

Registered for transmission through the post as a Newspaper,

The economic loss caused by illness is greater than the average man realises. He usually thinks only of his own loss of money or time when he is laid aside by illness and obliged to remain away from his usual occupation, a matter of serious importance to him, but ho probably does not visualise the aggregate loss of time which is resulting from ill-health. This is a matter that has exercised public opinion in Britain for a considerable number of years, especially in regard to the relation of sickness to industry. An Industrial Health Education Society, which has at its head some of the most prominent figures in the medical, political and industrial world in Britain, lias done very fine work in obtaining first-hand knowledge of the risks of sickness and disease peculiay to each branch of industry, and, as a result, has j been able to have safeguards effected, which have considerably Vedueed the diseases and illnesses to which workers were prone, i The sum total is still very high.! Tn 1933 no less than 29 million j working weeks were lost to Bri- 1 tish industry through sickness j and disablement. These figures i are taken from the returns of the Ministry of Health, and refer only to insured workers. Ifi comparable returns could be ob-j tained for all classes of workers, the total would be greatly increased. It is not pleasant to hear that no less than 558,000 workers in England and Wales i were subject to impairment of I health during 1933. It is this j loss to industry through oecupa-'

lioiial disease that the Industrial Health Education Society has set itself to combat. Its efforts are directed towards the spreading of knowledge among the workers themselves as to the best means of safeguarding health and all that health means, and it is impressing on employers that it pays to make conditions ot work for their employees as safe and healthy as possible. Since 1925. when the society was founded, 3500 health talks have been given by prominent members of the medical profession and industrial and other workers in Scotland, England and Ireland. The workers have showed greatinterest in the movement, providing places of meeting, choosing the subjects they wished discussed and undertaking all the arrangements. In the course of pne winter session, the subjects dealt with ranged from the dangers' of the different kinds of dust and the perils of whito-leaci poisoning, to the special problems of the care of the -woman worker and the young employee. Lord Horder, the famous British physician, in a recent said that all the evidence available is emphatic as to the vital importance of these health talks. So far as New' Zealand is concerned, the fact that it is sentially a primary producing country does not make the existence of an Industrial Health Society so necessary as in the intensely industrialised Britain, It must"also be remembered that the factory and other regulations in force in New 7 Zealand safeguard -workers to an extent which make them the envy of workers in most countries of the world. At the same time, it is obvious that everything that can be done to prevent disease and illrhealth should bo done, not only for the sake of the individual but for that of the community, for it is clear that the aggregate of lost time through sickness, even in a favoured country [like 'New Zealand, represents a groat-waste-of community wealth; It is for thif? reason that an institution such as the Plunket Society is of inestimable value, for it" is beyond ' question that the foundation of good health in the children of the Dominion is laid by. the methods inculcated by the society. It is also for the same reason that the League of Health a movement to promote a health crusade on the part of schoolchildren, is worthy of strongest support, for it may wmll be that the good work clone by the Plum ket Society among the infants can be undone in later years through either the underfeeding or the wrong feeding of the child of school age. The purpose of the Leagtie is to ascertain the facts of malnutrition- (just as tin Industrial Health Education .Society in Britain is searching foi ■ the causes of ill-health in industry) and pointing out the ways ; by jwhich it may be avoided. H the children of the Dominion art given a good start in life by the Plunket Society, and those who require help are provided wit! it before they enter the adolescent stage, the young manhood am; ! young w T omanbood of the country should be w 7 ell equipped tc enter the industrial world, be il primary or secondary industry But, when this has been said, 11 must be admitted that no unnecessary risks should be rut: either because of. the health ignorance of the worker or the conditions under wdiich he is obliged to work. 11l health, of course, is inescapable in many instances, but it is accepted that the greater part ,of the waste of working time is due to avoidable causes, The example of Britain in the matter of industrial health edit- , cation should not he neglected but, adapted to the especial needs of New 7 Zealand, should be emulated in this country.