Dec., 1916
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T H E J O U R N A L OF I N D U S T R I A L A N D ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
FIFTH ANNUAL SAFETY CONGRESS
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Papers read before the Chemical Section of t h e National Safety Council a t Detroit, October 16 t o 20, 1916
CHAIRMAN'S ADDRESS By J. R DE
LA
TORRE BUENO
To your presiding officer falls a high honor, a great opportunity. M y pleasant yet sober task is to sound the clear note of effort crowned by achievement that shall characterize this, the second annual meeting of the Chemical Section, National Safety Council. You will hear how a few of us organized this section as we sat modestly by a wall in a great chamber where a railroad sectional meeting was in enthusiastic progress. Briefly I shall tell you what we have done and what we have tried to do. At first the smallness of the section made it impossible to do more than name committee chairmen, and indeed, as you know, in most instances those committee chairmen were officers They will presently report to you, except the Membership Committee, whose report is contained in this. The Program Committee report, as you will hear, is the carefully arranged schedule under which we will work to-day. At the second meeting of the Section there were present about 20 members, and the last report from the Secretary of the Council gives a membership of 150 companies and individuals including company representatives; of all these only 26 are chemical manufacturers. The chair need not dwell on the terrific pressure under which the chemical industry has lived and moved in the past two years. It is known to all. For this reason your Executive Committee has done little beyond rearing a skeletonorganization, laying down the general principles to rule the Section. It has also prepared the preliminary series of bulletins you have already received. The willingness and enthusiasm of the chemical members in safety work are known to all. Because of the acuteness of their many present problems, your officers have not pressed them to enter more fully into the sectional work. But the time is now here when all should cooperate in advancing the section. The most pressing problem is t o draw in the chemical industry by a well-considered and energetic membership campaign. I suggest that every member here present pledge himself to enlist a t least one new member in the course of the year. If this be done by all, instead of having only 150 on our roll, we shall number 300 enthusiasts in industrial safety when the next annual meeting comes around. You are also urged to cooperate with the Standardization and Causes Committee in their fundamental survey work of the hazards of the industry. The Bulletin Committee likewise needs and indeed must have your strong support. Gentlemen, the Section is what you make it. Your officers are only too pleased and ready to do all they can to promote its success, but no general can win battles without a loyal army a t his back. I n the year coming, give your officers not alone your generous appreciation but your enthusiastic labor likewise. Our great, progressive, scientific industry should lead in safety as it does in research. I n the year to come let us labor wholeheartedly then to make and keep the Chemical Section of the IYational Safety Council the foremost in high enthusiasm, in intense work and in splendid achievement HEALTH PROBLEMS 1N THE CHEMICAL INDUSTRIES By GEORGE M. PRICE Director Joint Board of Sanitary Control; Formerly Director of Investigations, New York State Factory Commission
Of all industries the chemical is the most hazardous t o the workers. Other industries may and do contain one or more of the industrial hazards. The chemical has them all.
The chemical industry is full of perils to health, limb and life.
TO the dangers of motive-driven machinery are added those due to vats, pans and caldrons. Extremes of temperature, excessive humidity and other unhygienic conditions prevail in many establishments Abundant dust, suffocating fumes and poisonous gases are the rule, not the exception. Moreover, there is hardly an establishment in the chemical industry where various virulent poisons do not present a menace to the health and life of the workers. In proportion to the extent of motive power, machinery and the number of workers, the chemical industry shows a far greater number of accidents than any other industry, while the extent of occupational diseases, either suddenly terminating the lives of the workers or slowly and gradually undermining their health, has never as yet been determined. In spite of the undoubted enormous industrial menace to the health and lives of the workers, there is no industry, so far as I know, in which the human element is so woefully neglected as in the chemical. This was my impression, based upon an extensive investigation of several hundred chemical establishments in Kew York State and a large number outside of the state. After two years' investigation, during which I was assisted by eminent members of the chemical profession, we were reluctantly compelled to come to the above conclusion. The evident neglect of the human factor in the chemical industry may be rationally explained even if not justified. The industry was comparatively young; it was largely based upon brilliant discoveries and inventions; its methods were revolutionized every few years; the industry was undergoing constant changes and transformations; it was scattered among a large number of employers; it was often housed in temporary ramshackle structures; most of the work was performed by unskilled labor, by foreigners, by recent ignorant immigrants. Under such conditions it is apparent why little or n o attention was paid by the captains of the industry to the sanitary conditions of the establishments and the hygienic control of the workers. Within the last years the chemical industry has fortunately been revolutionized. It has been concentrated and its control is in fewer hands. The industry is getting stabilized; the ramshackle temporary structures are giving place to splendid permanent concrete buildings; steady employment gives place to shifting work; and the demand for increased efficiency has changed the attitude of the employers t o their workers The character of the labor element is also changing; it tends to hecome more permanent and is recruited less and less from the unskilled and immigrant class. A more efficient and strict state supervision has compelled the installation of many safeguards and the introduction of many sanitary improvements, while the compensation laws, enacted in most of the progressive states of the Union, have compelled the industry to think seriously of the solution of the problems of accident prevention and industrial hygiene. The industry collectively and the manufacturers individually are a t last being convinced of the necessity of a just recognition of the human element in the industry and have ceased to regard the labor element as a commodity subject to the inexorable laws of demand and supply. There is as yet much to be accomplished by' chemical manufacturers as well as by the chemical industry as a whole. The safety of the workers' limbs and lives must be assured. I n order to accomplish this result the character of the buildings in the industry must be improved: more light, better ventilation,
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improved construction of floors are absolute requisites; elevators, hoistways, ladders, etc., must be provided with proper safeguards; all machinery must be made safe and fool-proof; all vats, pans, caldrons and all chemical containers must be properly protected. The general sanitary conditions of the factory must be improved in so far as they relate to dressingrooms, washing, bathing and lunch facilities, etc. Add to these fundamental improvements the proper provisions for medical supervision and educational work and there would be no reason why the chemical industries should not become comparatively safe and hygienic. By medical supervision I mean complete medical supervision of the wholc plant-its physica.1 conditions, its sanitary features, the various industrial processes-and of all the employees, not only while they are within the shop but also while they are outside of the establishment. A medical supervision should consist of the following: ( a ) super-c-ision of the sanitation of the establishment; ( b ) supervisiorz of the industrial processes in so far as they are liable t o harm the workers; (c) preliminary examination of all new applicants for work; ( d ) first aid and care for accidents and diseases of the workers; (e) periodical examination of workers; (f) supervision of the home surroundings of the workers; and (g) medical care of the workers outside of the establishment. The educational activities which must be combined with the medical supervision are essentially those which tend to acquaint the workers with the dangers o€ their calling, with the perils of the vnrious gases, fumes and toxic agents which they must necessarily handle, and education of the workers in the proper means of safeguarding themselves from the ill eflects of the various perils of which the industry is so full. With the above program for the individual employers in the chemical industry, the industry as a whole should not be ,content The organization of the Chemical Section of the National Safety Council proves that the whole industry has great common interests. In Germany the chemical industry is organized in a powerful association (Berufsgenossenschaft)” There, owing to the sickness insurance laws, the industry as a whole is strongly organized and looks out for the common interests. The association exercises general supervision over all its components. It legislates for the industry; it has evolved a uniform and standardized method of safety, accident prevention and medical supervision; it appoints its own inspectors to investigate the sanitary, safety and health conditions in the establishments of its members; it punishes delinquent members by raising the rate of their insurance and it exercises general control of their safety, sanitation and health of the industry. Pr‘hat has been done in Germany and elsewhere may easily be accomplished here. There is need of a greater uniformity and better methods of standardization of the safety, sanitation and health control in the chemical industry. With all their desire, individual manufacturers cannot do as much as a whole industry. Many accidents and a large number of occupational diseases are still due either to negligence or to ignorance of employers and their operatives, and to the faulty and often incompetent medical supervision in various establishments. Only a general control by- the industry as a whole, combined in a National Association or section of the hTational Safety Council, may be abie to standardize the industry, t o improve the conditions of safety and health in the industry ar-d to remove from the industry :he stigma of the extreme menace to the heslth and iife of its workers. lndividual efforts, no matter how worthy or earnest, must give way to a general, joint, combined, uniform and standardized health supervision of industry. Great as has lxen the pr0sperit.y of the cliemical industry in the field of economic production, vast as have been its achieve-
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ments within the last few years, enormous as has been its progress in all the various fields of its endeavor, greater progress yet awaits the industry when, by a complete and thorough safeguarding of its establishments and a complete hygienic control of the health of its workers, the industry will proudly proclaim to the world that it no more is the most dangerous of all trades, but that it has become the most humane of all the industries. 3 1 UNION SQUARE, n‘EST NE%- P O R E C I T Y
THE GOGGLE PROBLEM IN THE CHEMICAL INDUSTRY B y J. R. DE LA TORRE BUENO Zditor, General Chemical Bulletin. General Chemical Company
The chemical protective goggle and its use presents every oue of the difficulties of the goggle problem, only in a vastly more acute degree. The goggle need not be stout to resist violent impact, but it must be of a material unacted on by acids or other chemicals. It must also prevent liquids from striking or flowing into the eye; and finally, it must be ventilated to prevent blurring. Some form of goggles must be worn in all work which demands protection of the eyes. Everywhere, the use of goggles presents a problem both material and psychological. The problem is material, in that the type of goggle must be carefully adapted to the work and its ”inherent hazard to aiTord perfect protection; it shouid also afford a maximum range of vision and be comfortable to wear. It i s psychological, because we men axe vain, far vainer than women, and so loth to wear anything disfiguring or that may expose us to ridicule; further, many mcn will take a chance. All industries have to contend with these adverse conditions and experiment and education are gradually overcoming them, by devising suitable and comfortable goggles, and by training the men in safety principles by constant instruction and reiteration. Many goggles have been made for chemical plants; some are still used. One type consists of a frame of soft rubber with a broad piece going across the nose and other pieces projecting beyond the temples. Another has hard rubber cups fitted with pneumatic cushions along the edges to be inflated, when worn, by means of two little rubber tubes with stopcocks. Both have the defect of heat. The soft rubber ones haveeyeletslet in for ventilation, but in such a way that there is always dan.ger of corrosive liquids flowing in. The hard rubber contrivance is unpractical, Besides, the pneumatic binding readily gets out of order. The goggle most in vogue consists of a close-fitting, flexible rubber half mask or visor which adheres so closely to the face that liquids cannot seep under it and flow into the eye. This has a very great disadvantage, besides being unsightlyit is the extreme discomfort it produces in the wearer by reason of the heat and perspiration it induces over the entire surface of the face with which it is in close contact. None of these types has efficiently solved the goggle problem in the chemical industry. Let me draw the ideal goggle. First, it has only one object, to protect perfectly the eye-that organ, a t once so delicate and so important to the worker. I t is meant neither for comfort nor for beauty, but for safety. But in attaining its prime object, none of the collateral points should be ignored. These, then, are the objects to be attained, the marks of the ideal goggle, in the order of their importance. (I; Perfect protection to the ryc ( 2 ) Large field of vision ( 3 ) Comfort (4) Sightliness PZRPSCT PROTECTIOK can be secured only by making the goggle of a material unaffected by chemicals and by making i t fit so closely that neither above nor below nor a t the sides may the least drop of a corrosive liquid penetrate to the eye, either by
