The full text on this page is automatically extracted from the file linked above and may contain errors and inconsistencies.
U. S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
JAMES J. DAVIS,
SECRETARY
WOMEN'S BUREAU
MARY ANDERSON, Director
BULLETIN OF THE WOMEN'S BUREAU, No. 57
WOMEN WORKERS
AND INDUSTRIAL POISONS
BY
DR. ALICE HAMILTON
WASHINGTON
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
1926
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
'
LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR,
WOMEN'S ;BUREAU,
Washington, September 23, 1926.
Srn: Transmitted herewith is an address made by Dr. Alice
Hamilton, professor of industrial medicine, Harvard Medical School,
at the Women's Industrial Conference held by the Women's Bureau
of the United States Department of Labor, January 18, 19, 20, and
21, 1926.
This paper is important because it deals in a very comprehensive
way with the employment of women in those trades in which women
are more or less exposed to some poisonous material, usually in the
form of dust or vapors. Doctor Hamilton is an acknowledged
authority on this subject.
Respectfully submitted.
MARY _A NDERSON,
Hon. J..ums J. DAvrs,
Se<:retary of Labor.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
Cu)
Director..
WOMEN WORKERS AND INDUSTRIAL POISONS
I have been asked to discuss the employment of women in the
poisonous trades; that is, in those trades which require from the
people working in them more or less exposure to some poisonous
material, which is usually in the form of dust or vapors contaminating
the air or, more rarely, in the form of a solid or liquid which when
handled becomes smeared over the skin and is absorbed through
the skin. During the war a number of governmental bureaus united
on a study of this subject in order to determine which occupations
might be given over to women without risk, but the question was
simpler than it is now. Then we had to consider chiefly lead and a
few explosives-T. N. T., tetryl, and fulminate of mercury-but that
was about all. At the present time the field is much more complicated. Since the war there has been a great change in the solvents
which are used in industry, ca.using a new situation in rubber factories and in factori es using varnish, lacquer, shellac, and all other
coatings. Since the war, also, there has been a great increase in
rubber manufacture, accompanied by an increase in the number of
women employed. In spite of these changes the poisonous trades
in the United States still employ a very much larger number of men
than of women, and the latter are rarely exposed to as great a degree
as are the men; but it is also true that the number of women subject to
the danger of industrial poisoning is much greater than it was before
the war.
Perhaps I can make the matter clearer if I speak in detail of the
principal compounds used in industries where women are employed.
Let us take lead first. During the war ·I wrote a bulletin for the
Department of Labor on women in the lead industries, and so far as
I know there has been no important change in the hazards of these
industries since that time. Now, as then, it is the pottery trade
which carries with it the greatest danger of lead poisoning for women
and girls, and those dangers -are greater than they should be and
greater than they are allowed to be in Great Britain, in Holland, and
in Germany. American potteries are not model factories; in fact,
they fall far below the standard maintained by many industries which
have no such serious risk and for which a strict factory hygiene is
not n early so necessary. The other lead industries where women find
14956°-'-26
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
(l)
2
employment include printing and type founding, both of which
have undergone improvement in recent years, so that the risk of le>td
poisoning is slight. Many women work with lead solder and sometimes in poorly ventilated shops. The risk from this sort of work
should be slight, and proper factory inspection should be able to deal
with it easily. More complicated and much more dangerous is work
in the production of lithotransfer paper, where women dust very
finely ground lead colors on prepared paper. Very serious lead
poisoning is still developing in at least one of the largest of these
plants, ·and even in those which are better managed it is difficult to
protect the women entirely against the lead powder. On the whole
the lead trades can be regarded as less dangerous for women than
they were eight years ago during the war . .
The change in solvents, however, of which I spoke above, has
brought about a situation that is at once dangerous and difficult to
control. A large number of new solvents have been introduced,
and an old solvent, coal-tar benzol, has spread widely though industry, displacing the much safer petroleum solvents, naphtha and benzine. Women work in many of the industries where these solvents
are used, and in the last few years the medical journals have published a number of articles telling of poisoning from the solvents,
especially from benzol. The manufacture of rubber goods and of
sanitary cans are the two ~rades which employ the largest number
of women in occupations exposing them to benzol fumes, and it is
chiefly from these two that the cases of poisoning have come. The
National Safety Council has recently published a report of a study
of the benzol-using industries in which it is stated that during 192223 and 1923-24, 15 deaths from benzol poisoning and 83 nonfatal
cases occurred in 24 plants. During the first nine months of 1925 at
least 7 more died from benzol poisoning. How many of these were
women the report does not state, but of 52 cases of severe poisoning of which I have records 40 were women, and of the 36 deaths
28 were of women. The proportion of cases which proved fatal is
about the same for the two sexes-66 per cent for men, 70 per cent
for women--but the number of women victims is far larger. The
last two deaths of which I have heard were both of women, employees of a sanitary-can factory in Baltimore. It is probable that benzol is one of the poisons which is more dangerous for women than for
men and especially dangerous for young girls. This is because
chronic benzol poisoning destroys the elements of the blood, causing
the victims to suffer not only from a profound anemia but from hemorrhages, for the blood has lost its power to clot. When a slight
injury to a blood vessel occurs the blood keeps on oozing out. Victims of benzol poisoning have hemorrhages under the skin as well as
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
3
from the nose, the gums, the stomach, and the intestines, while
women who are poisoned suffer additional loss of blood through excessive menstrual flow. If a woman is pregnant, she may suffer a hemorrhage like that of an abortion, as happened in another Baltimore
case. I look upon this wide use of benzol as a solvent for the gums
and resins as the most serious health hazard that has developed in
industry in recent years. The report of the National Safety Council
committee concludes as a result of a three years' study that a quantity of benzol as low as 100 parts per 1,000,000 of air involves a
substantial hazard, and they urge that manufactures seek a harmless
substitute for benzol wherever this is possible, and where it is not that
the workers be given a periodic medical examination, including an
examination of the blood.
·In sanitary-can factories the benzol is used to dissolve rubber, and
the bottom of the can is fastened to the body by this thin rubber
benzol cement. The can, with the bottom, passes into a heat ed
chamber where the benzol evaporates, leaving the rubber. The hot
cans come out before evaporation is complete, and the women who
work as "takers off" breatp.e benzol fumes. Here is where the largest number of severe cases of benzol poisoning among women in the
United States have occurred. It is rather ironical to call these "sanitary cans" if one is thinking of the producer. 'rhey were introduced
to take the place of the lead-soldered cans, which were made formerly, because the lead was supposed to be dangerous when used to
seal cans containing food. This very slight risk to the consumer has
been avoided at the expense of a heavy risk to the worker.
In rubber manufacture it is in the cementing of seams that benzol
is used by women, but the greatest hazards in this industry are encountered by men, not women, and the fatal cases among American
rubber workers, so far as published cases show, have all been among
men. Benzol rubber cements may be used in other industries. Thus
in a wholesale millinery house in Ohio a number of women suffered
from mild benzol poisoning in pasting fabrics to make hats. Fortunately the trouble was discovered in time, and the solvent in the
cement was changed. The dry-cleaning industry is often spoken of
as a benzol-using industry, but I can not tell you how far this is true.
In Massachusetts the Consumers' League found that only one plant
used benzol, the others having given it up, largely because of the
great fire risk.
Wood alcohol, or methyl alcohol, is a peculiarly American poison,
because up to recent years our law did not permit us to use denatured grain . alcohol. Although legislation permitting the use of
denatured grain alcohol was passed about 20 years ago , the habit of
using methyl alcohol has persisted, and it is never safe to assume
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
•
4
•
that an alcoholic solvent consists of grain alcohol. Varnishes in wh,ich
wood alcohol is used dry more quickly than those made with O ,in
alcohol because the former evaporates more quickly. Quicker e poration also means that the air of the workroom becomes more qui<i: ly
poisoned. The New York State factory inspectors in 1917 fot d
wood alcohol used as a solvent for the shellac applied to lead pen . ,,
for shellac on picture frames, and for that used in stiffening hat fran· s
and Panama hats. Artificial flower manufacture in New York St 9
also uses wood alcohol as a solvent for the dyes. The parts of the flo" · r
are dipped into the dye and hung up to dry while the solvent ev9i _
orates. In all these trades women are employed, and the inspecto 1
have found that inflammation of the skin and of the eyelids is n♦ ,
uncommon among the women. According to one authority it is n\
enough to provide ordinary ventilation in a workroom where woo1 •
alcohol is used. At least three times the usual air space is require ,
for safety where this solvent is used. The symptoms of wood alcoho
poisoning, which may end in death or in more or less complete blind~,
ness, are familiar to all, from the numberless cases which occurrec. ·
soon after the passage of the prohibition amendment. Industriai
poisoning which is caused by breathing fumes instead of swallowing
is of exactly the same character. In the occupations mentioned above,
which are carried on by women the fumes are not strong enough to 1
cause acute poisoning, but it is an established fact that slow chronic
poisoning from repeated small doses may also cause loss of sight.
It would not be right to leave the subject of women in the poisonous trades without speaking of• two further aspects of the subject:
First, the evidence of a greater susceptibility to poisons on the part
of women as compared with men, and, second, the evidence of poisoning in the offspring which results from poisoning in the mother.
In England in 1897, when both men and women worked in the
white-lead factories, the · men had a rate of 1 case of lead poisoning
for every 17 employed, but the women showed 1 case for every 8 to
9 employed, a rate just double that of the men. In 1910 the women
dippers in the British potteries had twice as high a rate as the men.
In 1920 women ware carriers in American potteries who worked with
men in the dipping rooms had a rate of almost 5 per cent, while no
cases were reported among the men. Among the dippers' helpers the
men had a rate of 8.4 per cent, but the women's rate was 14.4 per cent.
Women are also more liable to the severest forms of lead poisoning,
the brain form, in which there is unconsciousness, delirium, convulsions, and blindness. The British figures show that 34.9 per cent of
the lead-poisoned women potters suffered from this form of the disease, while on,ly 15 per cent of the cases among the men were of the
severe type. Among American cases · the percentage is 22.5 for
women and 5 8 for men.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
•
5
uring the war the English found that T. N. T. poisoning was worse
ar mg women munition workers than among men; the Germans
fo 1d that dinitrobenzene poisoning was decidely worse among
w nen; and the Americans found that women in the smokeless-powd works suffered more from ether poisoning than did men.
.v.fost of our information concerning the damage to the next
g leration which is caused by industrial poisoning has been drawn
f m the lead trades. We have evidence based on French statistics
f · d on animal experiments, that lead poisoning in the father affects
1 e offspring, but the evidence is much stronger with regard to the
There are striking statistics
1 . :ect of lead poisoning in the mother.
: . )m English reports and also from the French which leave no doubt
~ hatever that a woman who has chronic lead poisoning is more likely
'i be sterile than a normal woman. If she becomes pregnant, she
more likely to abort or to bear a stillborn child, and if her child
born living it is more likely to die within the first year of life.
'Ve have no figures with regard to the effect of other poisons than
J jad, but we do know that both carbon monoxide gas and benzol
· nay produce abortion, and that the latter, by causing anemia,
. : ·enders a healthy pregnancy almost impossible. It is plain to all
j jhat if a poison is circulating in the blood of the mother it is prac.
{ 'tically certain to affect the child she is carrying.
·~, A great many new and more or les.s .unfamiliar industrial poisons
_have come into use since the war, and each month we hear of at least
.; one new one. This brings about a serious situation, for unless the
! 'new poisons are carefully tested on animals the human beings who
) use them in trade processes will be taking the place of experimental
animals. Unfortunately it seems to be nobody's duty to undertake
the investigation of these new dangers. In Great Britain and in
s." Germany the central department of the factory inspection service
assumes this as one of its obyious functions, but in the United States
. no State department is equipped with the necessary experts to do
this, and yet, judging from my own correspondence, I should say
that employers and industrial insurance companies are even keener
to obtain such information than are the trade-unions. It is hard to
understand why so rich and important an industrial country as ours
should show penuriousness in just this particular field, and I can not
help believing that in the near future we may be in a position to solve
our problems of this character as well as Great Britain and Germany
are already doing.
.
t
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
ADDITIONAL COPIES
OJ' THIS PUBUCATION MAY BE PROCURED FROK
THE SUPERINTENDENT OJ' DOCUMENTS
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
WASHINGTON, D . C.
AT
6 CENTS PER COPY
'v
(
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
@FedFRASER