ETHEROL HAIRWASH CAUSES GIRL'S DEATH.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17837, 4 May 1926, Page 6

ETHEROL HAIRWASH CAUSES GIRL'S DEATH.

WARNING SOUNDED AGAINST DANGER.

(Special to the “Star.”) LONDON, March 24. A warning to the public of the danger caused by hairdressers washing their women customer’s hair with etherol. an - ether product, was given yesterday by a Paris court in the case which cost the life of a seventeen-year-old girl. The victim. Mile. Duprat. was having her hair washed with etherol when suddenly the hair caught fire. The hairdresser and his assistants wrapped blankets round her to smother the flames, but she died two days later after suffering great agony. Her father was yesterday awarded £SOO damages against the hairdresser, the court finding that the latter had failed to use proper precautions. LIT BY AIR CURRENT. The saloon in which the girl’s hair was being washed was separated from the rest of the establishment by a glass partition, but two panes were missing. Professor King, director of the Municipal Laboratory, found that the ether vapour had been ignited by heating apparatus in the adjoining room. The court laid stress on the importance making known Professor Kling’s conclusion that tjie use of etherol w,vt extremely dangerous in any circumstances, the liquid being so volatile that the slightest air current might cause it to be ignited from a considerable distance.