INDUSTRIAL HYGIENE. The policy of providing healthful and comfortable working quarters for employees in commercial and man ufacturing establishments has been developed within comparatively few years. Previous) little thought was given to such matters and, in factories especially, operatives were crowde together in any kind of a shop that chance or a desire for economy might provide and the fact that many of these working places were both dismal and unsanitary had but little weight with the average employer.
To-day these conditions are changing so rapidly that poorly lighted, inadequately heated, improperly ventilated or otherwise unhealthful workshops are coming to be the rare excep tions to the rule. Instead, in the average shop, adequate toilet and washing facilities are now provided, problems of lighting and ventilation are solved by expert engineers, even such questions as the regulation of heat and humidity being given serious consideration, and every effort is made to see that the working conditions are such as not to impair the health and effi ciency of the employee.
While the matter of hygienic and sanitary equipment has been fixed to a great extent in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massa chusetts and Wisconsin, where the legislatures have enacted laws setting a standard, not only for industry as a whole but, in many instances, for particular branches of industry, the im provements in these directions are in no sense confined to establishments that have been com pelled by statute to adopt more modern meth ods. Even in communities that are unregulated by law or industrial code, similar improvements are constantly being made, for experience hal so clearly demonstrated that these changes in working conditions quickly pay for themselves in the character of the service performed by the working force that even those employers who feel that they owe no such moral obligation to their employees have learned the lesson that proper hygienic and sanitary workshops snake for greater and better production, and are taking the steps necessary for the adoption of the methods that are everywhere proving so mutually advantageous.
In fact, these questions have assumed pro portions of so great importance that, in several instances, employers' associations have con ducted thorough surveys and adopted standards for the improvement of working conditions, even in communities unaffected by legislative statute. For example, the Welfare Managers' Group of the Detroit (Mich.) Executives'
Club made a survey which included all of the important plants in that city, and, as a result, the preceding sanitary arrangements were sug gested as necessary for the proper equipment of a manufacturing plant.
The committee also reported: 'IThe objections to paper towels, that we do not get our hands dry enough to prevent chapping,' can be done away with by a well ventilated, warm dressing room, where the hands will dry while dressing. Where there are corners into which waste paper and refuse are thrown this can be largely eliminated by painting these corners white and lighting them well. One does not throw waste into clean corners. Tile floors should be laid in all wash rooms, etc., where possible; otherwise, cement, well drained. Oily floors should be swept and scraped daily. Where cement floors are used, rubber pads for the men to stand on will help in increasing comfort and efficiency. All scrap metal should be kept clear of the workers" The Detroit committee also included °good lunch room and recreation facilities among our prophylactic treatment,° on the ground that properly prepared, carefully selected food and healthful recreation are important factors in the development of an effective hygienic and sanitary program.
In plants where workers are exposed to dangerous dusts or noxious fumes the installa tion of a lunch room is regarded as most essen tial, as all authorities agree that the cold lunch eon eaten in the workroom, or in an unpleasant environment, must have a direct effect in re ducing the physical fitness necessary to produc tion. Where lunch rooms are not provided, it is advised that gas stoves or steam tables on which foods brought from home may be heated should be installed, and it is declared that even the policy of furnishing nothing more than milk, coffee, tea or soup at a nominal charge has invariably been found an economy to the employer. Where lunch room facilities are provided, however, care should be taken to see that the food served is of excellent quality, both in material and method of cooking, for otherwise it would be difficult to overcome the temptation to hurried eating, but it has gen erally been found that where food is selected for its nutritive value and is prepared with a view to ready digestion, satisfactory improve ment in the health of the working force is noted, with a corresponding reduction of time lost through illness and intemperance.