Mortality from respiratory diseases in dusty trades (inorganic dusts) / by Frederick L. Hoffman.

  • Hoffman, Frederick L. (Frederick Ludwig), 1865-1946.
Date:
[1918]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Mortality from respiratory diseases in dusty trades (inorganic dusts) / by Frederick L. Hoffman. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    109/470 (page 103)
    cording to whom “ among 93 file makers examined in Berlin more than 5 per cent were afflicted with lead poisoning after having been at work a little more than two years.” Apparently the risk of lead poisoning is more serious than the inhalation of metallic and mineral dust; but, as said before, ac¬ curate and conclusive data concerning this occupation are not at present available. The only statistical reference of value occurs in the Supplement to the Sixty-fifth Annual Keport of the Registrar General of Births, Deaths, and Marriages in England and Wales, in part, as follows: File makers experience more than twice the average mortality from nervous diseases and nearly four times the average from Bright's disease, but cutlers experience comparatively little excess of mor- talitv from either of these causes. In both industries the mortality from phthisis is enormous, the figure for cutlers being nearly three times and that for file makers more than twice the standard, and in both occupations the mortality from respiratory diseases approaches double the standard. Both these workers, however, experience a low mortality from influenza, from alcoholism and liver disease, and from accident, while among file makers the mortality from cancer is also less than normal. GENEEAL CONCLUSIONS. This statement sustains the earlier conclusion that this occu¬ pation is not readily separated from other employments, chiefly the manufacture of cutlery and tools, with which it has much in com¬ mon. The general conclusion is that the employment is one involving serious dust hazards demanding more qualified medical and admin¬ istrative consideration. TOOL AND INSTRUMENT MAKERS. The manufacture of tools and instruments includes a large number of grinders and polishers, but it is not possible to classify the occupa¬ tions in detail. In the United States census statistics the industry includes cutlery manufacture, while in English mortality statistics the group comprehends tool, file, and saw makers, cutlers and scissors makers, and needle and pin makers. The statistics of 1910 for the United States return 20,212 males of known ages, 10 years or over, employed in this industry as previously defined, and of this number 3,669, or 18.2 per cent, were 45 years of age or over. The propor¬ tion attaining to old age was, therefore, somewhat larger than expected, considering the high rate of mortality of grinders and polishers, and others employed in the manufacture of tools, instruments, etc.