NOXIOUS TRADES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5582, 4 June 1896, Page 2

NOXIOUS TRADES.

♦ There are two classes of trades ' that, may be called noxious — those that create public nuisances, and those that simply kill off those engaged ih them. In spite of the saying that' " everybody's business is nobody's business," the firßt- V named class of noxious trades is under much more effective supervision than the other. A recent case in England drew, attention afresh to the terrible risks run by worker* in lead. Ellen Elizabeth. Pickering, a girl of sixteen years of age, was employed as an enamel worker at Birmingham. The wages of the, poor girl were 9s a week, and two years of this occupation sufficed to destroy her young life. In March of last year she fell ill, and was absent from the factory for five weeks. Then she got better, and was certified as fit to return ; but recently she lost appetite, fell ill again and died— according to the medical evidence — of lead poisoning. At tho inquest the Coroner said to the Managing Director of the works • "Abb, matter of fact you cannot make what you want to make without the use of lead ?" "We can do so," was the reply, "but it is very costly, and unless all manufacturers were compelled to do so we should have to close." What is significant here is the frank admission that such deaths as that of the girl Pickering are preventable. The jury appended to their verdict a rider asking for a Government inquiry, with a view to the compulsory abolition, of the use of lead in enamel works. There are other unhealthy industries that ought to be brought under similar compulsion. The requirements of art or scienceor manufacture ought never to. be placed^ before human health and happiness, and a stop should be put to all processes in which "the spirit of murder works in the very means of life."