HOW TO BE FIT.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18201, 27 February 1929, Page 3

HOW TO BE FIT.

health education needed. S . ir Humphrey Eoileston, Regius Pro>soi of Medicine at Cambridge and physician to the King, writes as follows in the London 4 daily Express” : A ever in our history has so much attention been given to the subject of national health and its maintenance, .-luce the reign ot Queen Victoria the length of life of the average citizen has increases bv at least ten and t ie la 1 in infantile mortality proves .* value of preventive medicine, industrial workers in this country number about 20,000,000, and ihe need lor health education among them is of the utmost importance, not only to the nation at large, but also to employers. .Sir George Newman, Chief Medical Officer ot the Ministry of Health, shows in his report that in 1927, owing to sickness and disablement, thirty million and a half weeks ’work was lost among workers alone, and that this means 586,540 years, or the equivalent ot twelve niontlls ’ work °f 590,000 per-

I urther, in his address on “Everyman in Preventive Medicine,” he lias insisted on the necessity for general education in personal hygiene, and on the duty of every true citizen to preserve his own health and that of his employees and those dependent on him. It was to help to solve this problem and to improve the health of the workers that the Imperial Health Education Society was created, and since its establishment in 1925 has made rapid progress. In 1925 there were 118 engagements with workers’ organisations providing tor health talks on occupational sickness and diseases and relative subjects. In 1926 the number was 191, in 1927 it was 285 and last year this number was greatly exceeded. As it is well known that there are a number of occupational disease and accidents, it is obvious that, if the workers are fully informed how to prevent or at least mitigate, the inherent risks, they would be less prone to illness, freer from accidents, less often absent from nolle, their output would be greater, and consequently there would be benefit all round. Medical men who address industrial workers have interesting experiences, especially during question time, for their audience are keen on obtaining further information and clearing up doubtful points; indeed, it is not unusual for this less formal interchange of question and answer to last for an hour and more. Industrial workers are pront to suffer from special diseases, and, as it has been estimated that at least 50 per cent, of these should be avoided if the workers possessed and used the necessary and avatable information, it is clear that this society’s work is of great importance. Medical men dealing with industrial medicine are much impressed with the keenness of the workers, for loss of work means loss of wages, with all the attendant hardships of sickness and pecuniary want to meet the continuous demands; the real man would rather he at work earning wages than drawing from sickness and unemployment benefits. The rheumatic diseases bulk largely in the picture of industrial medicine, j for . though these disabling affections are all too common among the community as a whole, some occupations are, from their nature. more prone than others to cany this risk with them. Rheumatism is frequent among iron and steel workers, in the building trades, and among miners. Take the ! instance of a miner working in a wet | pit, or, if not, at least his work causes j him to perspire so freely that his clothes I are damp. What happens? On reaching home, ' he enjoys the only substantial meal of the day before a good fire, and too often falls asleep in bis damp «e':es. Men working in the shale mines may hr attacked by paraffin cancer, and ! after a few rears be thus incapacitated i from work. j One of the members of this .Society dealt with the pre-entire aspects ot (bis disease so successfully that in a i short time the number of eases in the 1 district was greatly diminished. 'Fbe risk oi mule spinners cancer among the cotton workers lias been much diminished by the knowledge ot i the necessary precautions and by early treatment. The field is large and the subject of far-reaching importance to the nation and its industries. So great is the demand for the health talks that the resources of tin* society have been taxed to the utmost, and the volume of work lias out-grown the organisation The subject is of great significance to em pi avers for obviously the more henlthv the workers the mare efficient will they lie. and the more likely to bring a new spirit into industry. Mould not emplovers and their organisations •In well in' their own interests and in those of their workers by furthering the activities of this society? Wll El*E THE KN IL EXI STS. Noman’s work should he a dangei to ins health or a menace to bis lift f.nd vet, in spite of Acts of Parliament and the Home Office regulations, there are industries where both evils exist. But in the last, analvsis much dependl- - the individual, the exercise of common sense, and regard to the preventive measures which are available. As “the soft, droppes of rain perco he h.ircl marble" su il m hnpvd that 111. reiteration of the available inform;, for will have beneficial results ami that I these will be seen in a healthie- ami j happier race of industrial workers.