Lead poisoning : from the industrial, medical, and social points of view, lectures delivered at the Royal Institute of Public Health / by Sir Thomas Oliver.

  • Oliver, Thomas, Sir, 1853-1942.
Date:
1914
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Lead poisoning : from the industrial, medical, and social points of view, lectures delivered at the Royal Institute of Public Health / by Sir Thomas Oliver. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    cases in white lead workers. This difference in the mortality rate is not without significance; it suggests that it is among white lead workers that the regulations issued and enforced by the Home Office have been most productive of good. The 8,523 cases of lead poisoning occurred among persons employed in eighteen industries. The number of cases notified in 1900 and 1901 were respectively 1,058 and 863, and for 1911 and 1912 they were 669 and 587. While the number of cases notified has declined, the same cannot be said of the fatalities. In 1900 and 1901 the fatal cases were 38 and 34 respectively, but in 1911 and 1912, although, according to the tables, fewer cases were reported, there were 37 and 44 deaths respectively. Control of dust in industrial occupations in which white lead and lead compounds are manu- factured or handled has done much to bring about a reduction in the number of cases of plumbism. It is Dr. Legge's opinion that, if the amount of lead present in the air breathed is less than 5 milligrammes per 10 cubic metres of air, saturnine encephalopathy and paralysis will not occur. Taking ten hours as the period of an ordinary working day, it is estimated that during that time 4! cubic metres of air pass in and out of the lungs. The inhalation of 2 milligrammes