THE INDUSTRIAL WORLD.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 4869, 7 February 1894, Page 1

THE INDUSTRIAL WORLD.

ITEMS OP INTEREST TO WORKERS, Cokpimd fob the " Stab."] Death in the Lead FaptorFThe report of the Departmental Com"mittee which was appointed by the British Home Secretary to inquire into the manufacture of white lead and the allied industries has been issued. The committee consisted of: — Mr Edward Gould, Her Majesty's Superintending Inspector of Factories j Dr Thomas Oliver, physician ~to the Newcatftle-on-Tyne Infirmary ; Professor Dnpre, lecturer on chemistry in the Westminster Hospital Medical School; "Mr H. J. Cameron, Her Majesty's Inspector of Factories, and Mr H. J. Tennant, Assistant Private Secretary to the Home Secretary and Secretary to the Committee. The committee have accomplished an immense amount of work since their- appointment. They have visited forty-six works in England, Scot* land and Wales, and examined one hundred and eighty-four witnesses. The committee find that lead and all its ■compounds are in a greater or less degree poisonous, and that the handling or use of each or all of them ia attended by danger. They describe as particularly dangerous the processes of stripping the stacks — the white beds as they are called, in which the women remove the corroded lead and get it under their finger-hails and absorb it into their system. There is danger in the work at the rollers, where the workers' hands come into contact with the lead and it gets eplasbed about their , dresses; at the washbecks, where washing and separating of the lead is done, but ' chiefly at the stoves where the lead is dried and in the emptying of which clouds of lead dust are given off, and also in the packing of the lead. The committee fiad, moreover, that lead dust is held in suspenx sion in the atmosphere in every part of a white-lead factory, bo that some risk is rnn in each department. ' The principal recommendation made is the complete prohibition of the employment of women in those processes speoified as specially deadly— that is to say, those in which there is direct contact with whitelead. They estimate that this will not affect more than 600 worker b, and with a view of making tho displacement as gradual and painless as possible, they suggest that prohibition shouM not come into force until Jan. 1, 18&>. It is plainly hinted that much of tbe work done by women could with advantage be performed by machinery. As it is the women clamber about staging with heavy loads on their heads j. they walk backwards and forwards with weights of from 301 bto 501 bof lead at a time, with which they ascend ladders from 10ft to 15ft high, and altogether the work is done on a crude system ; and it is pretty evident from the report that but for a supply of extremely cheap labour mechanical processes would before this have been introduced. Hitherto the employment of women under the age of eighteen has been prohibited in any part of the works. It is now proposed to raise the age to twenty years. A dining-room is to ba provided, and no one is to be permitted to take food in any other patt of the works. The committee express the hope that the practice of certain firms of providing food for their employe's before beginning work or at the dinner hour will become general, as a sufficiency of good food is most important in view of the condition of the industry. For the rest, overalls and head covering?, together with shoes and stockings, are to be supplied to all women workers, and the wearing of them enforced daring working hours, whilst certain technical changes, which must tend to greatly minimise the risks, are proposed in connection with certain of the processes. The committee have no faith in artificially warding off the lead poison — in fact, they suggest the discontinuance of wearing gloves for manipulating white-lead. They suggest, however, that a respirator of a particular kind, made of cambric, and bag-Ehaped, should be adopted. ■ ( The committee, strangely enough, have made no recommendations of special presantions for the protection of the men employed in white-lead factories.