The matter of protecting the worker's health has become increasingly important to his employer. Any indifference the latter may have shown toward this situation in the past has been eliminated by the passage of legislation protective to the worker. DR. J. GRANT CUNNINGHAM has come forth with a very timely paper on the more important chemical health hazards in industry and discusses each from the standpoint of pathological effects and physiological behavior including the methods of treatment based upon such knowledge.
Lead.--The individual with lead poisoning complains of headache, poor appetite, especially for breakfast, lassitude, persistent constipation and in the acute stage, abdominal colic, weakened hand grip and even wrist drop. An acute attack must be distinguished from acute appendicitis.
About one-fifth of a grain of lead per one thousand cubic feet of air is given as the dose which, over a period of months, will produce poisoning, so that the actual exposure necessary is small. In a sense lead is a cumulative poison. In the body, under suitable conditions of hydrogen-ion concentration, lead is taken from the blood, is converted into insoluble tri-lead phosphate, and stored in the bones. Relatively small changes in reaction serve to reverse the conditions, drawing lead back into circulation for excretion by the kidneys or through the bile. Too great and sudden a reversal will precipitate an acute attack of lead poisoning.
Individuals acutely ill are rapidly relieved by the intravenous injection of calcium. Subsequent treatment involves the administration of substances known to alter the hydrogen-ion concentration to favor the release of lead from the bones in sufficiently small amounts that it may be excreted fast enough to prevent a fresh attack of acute symptoms. This may be accomplished by the administration of acid or acid-producing salts, at the same time withholding calcium, or by the use of alkali alone. Such substances are phosphoric acid, ammonium chloride, sodium bicarbonate or parathyroid extract. If stored lead is not removed, the individual is liable to an acute attack should anything occur to change this balance, such as a seizure of influenza or alcoholic excess.
Hydrocarbons.--Of the distillation products of coal tar and petroleum benzene is the most important industrially. Benzene 64s