Skin diseases – Reason and causes of Skin trouble if wet

Men affected are often compelled to stop away from work for six months and more, while there is frequently a recurrence of the malady. Medical research has gone to show that none of the ingredients used in baking bread and in making conectionary are injurious to the skin when applied dry, but that a number of them cause skin trouble if wet. The bake houses welfare order was drawn up with this particularly in mind. Among other necessary washing facilitates so that workers may remove all dough and sugar from the skin before leaving work, and insists on immediate medical treatment on the first sign of the out break of skin trouble. To turn from skin diseases to metallic poisoning lead, made use of in well over one hundred different trades, is of all metals employed in industry the most dangerous to the health of the worker. Lead poisoning, or plumbism, is liable to attack plumbers and painters both house and ship, operatives in white lead factories, workers using lead glazes in the manufacture of china and earthenware, file cutters and enamellers but not lead miners. The principal symptoms of plumbism include anemia caused by a reduction of the number of red blood cells and a consequent deficiency in hemoglobin abdominal pain, sickness and defective vision. Dropped wrist, due to paralysis of the muscles of hand and wrist, is one of the worst features of the disease. The lead paint act forbids the use of lead compound except as paste or paint, and prohibits the rubbing off of old paint with pumice stone, directing that, for this, one of the wet methods of removal shall be substituted. Paint spraying is made illegal in the interior of buildings. Employers are compelled to provide washing facilities, and to arrange for the regular medical examinations of workers, who must be suspended if found suffering from poisoning. Further, the employment of women or young persons in lead painting is forbidden. In most factories where lead processes are employed, workers lessen the risks by wearing tight fitting overalls, making use of taking hot baths and changing their clothes before leaving work. As the result of these various measures, plumbism has very greatly decreased in the last thirty years.