Lead poisoning and lead absorption : $b The symptoms, pathology and prevention, with special reference to their industrial origin, and an account of the principal processes involving riskLegge, Thomas Morison, Sir
Science
Lead poisoning and lead absorption : $b The symptoms, pathology and prevention, with special reference to their industrial origin, and an account of the principal processes involving risk
Legge, Thomas Morison, Sir
Lead poisoning
=Baths.=--Provision of bath accommodation is required under the special
rules for white-lead factories and the regulations for electric
accumulators. In several factories, however, baths are provided
for the use of the workers. They naturally make for improvement in
general health, but we cannot regard provision of them, any more than
cloakrooms and mess-rooms, as likely to influence materially incidence
of lead poisoning in a factory. The three requisites of (1) convenience
and quickness, (2) comfort, and (3) regular use, can best be secured
by the use of shower baths in place of slipper baths. The advantage
they have are--(1) Initial cost of installation is less; (2) economy
in space; (3) economy in water; (4) economy in time required for
bathing; (5) no worker comes into contact with water used by another;
(6) cleansing must be from the head downwards. Danger of scalding can
be absolutely excluded by use of valve levers, so placed in relation to
one another that steam cannot be turned on until the cold-water valve
has been opened, and the heater can be so arranged that the water is
not raised above a definite temperature.
=Separation of Processes.=--Lead processes should, as far as possible,
be carried on in such a way that there is aerial disconnection of one
process from another. Separate workrooms, although desirable unless
very small, may not always be possible, but by exhaust ventilation
processes may be arranged so that dust is not a source of danger to
persons working elsewhere. Instances could be given where, in paint and
colour works, persons employed in the grinding of earth colours, in
which no lead entered, succumbed to attacks of plumbism from contiguity
of the plant with that for grinding lead colours. Threading up of
castor runners on a wire previous to dipping used to be done, prior to
1901, in the dipping-house itself, with the result that some severe
cases of poisoning occurred. By the rules of 1901 the process was
required to be done in a place separate from any place where dipping
(or other scheduled process) was carried on, and very few cases have
occurred since. And if exhaust ventilation is relied on, Duckering’s
experiments (p. 206) show the attention to detail necessary to prevent
air charged with lead dust being drawn to the spot by the fan. The need
for separation of processes becomes less in proportion as the cubic
space of the room increases, and dust and fumes are locally removed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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