The Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, JANUARY 6, 1917. DANGERS IN DUST.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 1658, 6 January 1917, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, JANUARY 6, 1917. DANGERS IN DUST.

THE effect of dust; on human health has been investigated by Sir Thomas Oliver, the foremost authority on “diseases of occupation.” He declares that injurious microbes are present in dust everywhere. “The greatest enemy,” he writes, “of a. worker in any trade is dust. If we could get rid of dust, and have our people working in a clear and, comparatively speaking, dustless atmosphere, we would hear less of occupational diseases.” Watering and tarring are effective means of abating the nuisance of road dust. Analysis of the contents of air taken from tarred portions of public highways shows that the purity of the air on the tarred road is very much greater than on the non-tarred road. Sir Thomas Oliver bears'witness to having seen tobacco smoke clearing a dusty atmosphere “much more quickly than if the dust had been allowed to settle alone.” Fewer bacterial foes of health are found in the nose devoted to snuffing, and in the mouth of the habitual smoker, than in the nose and mouth of the non-snuffer and the non-smoker. Microbes die in water in which tobacco has been steeped. None of those invisible enemies of health have been found in the body of a cigar. One of the professors in the Imperial Institute in Berlin states that the cholera microbe dies after exposure to tobacco smoke fo/ a period of from one-half to two hours. This German scientist was professionally employed in an epidemic of cholera in Hamburg, when he discovered that not a single cigar-maker was attacked.