In nonmunitions industries there was some grumbling at alleged delay by the Home Office in taking advantage of the “Police, Factories, etc. (Miscellaneous provisions) Act.” Up to the end of 1916 the only action taken under the law had been to hold formal conferences on future welfare requirements in the pottery and tin plate industries. Without use of the act, the factory inspectors reported “great progress” in 1916 in improving conditions in a most varied group of industries; sugar refineries, confectionery, breweries, oil seed crushing, rope works, paper mills, woodworking, cloth and webbing making and tobacco, and also in the tin plate industry in advance of an order. Advances in these trades were believed to have been greatly assisted by the publicity given “welfare” in the munitions industry.
The first order under the act went into effect on October 1, 1917. It required a supply of pure drinking water and drinking cups in all factories employing more than twenty-five persons. A second order was issued in October, to go into effect December 1, 1917. It applied only to blast furnaces, copper and iron mills, foundries and metal works. In all such establishments having more than 500 employes, an “ambulance room” in charge of a trained nurse must be provided, and the provision of “first aid” outfits was made compulsory wherever twenty-five or more persons were employed. The third order covered the provision of protective clothing, cloakrooms and canteens in tin plate factories. Apparently the only addition to the orders made in 1918 covered similar provisions for certain tanneries.
Occupational Diseases
in Munitions Work
Besides the general dangers to health from poor working conditions, a number of specific occupational poisonings menaced the health of women munition workers. They might be exposed to poisonous gases, lead, fulminate of mercury which might cause mercurial poisoning or eczema, tetryl, which also caused eczema, picric acid, or nitrous fumes, together with the danger of dermatitis from the lubricating fluids used on metals, and of suffocation from cordite used in filling shells. The worst risk, however, was that of contracting toxic jaundice from the “dope” (tetrachlorethane) used in varnishing the wings of airplanes and from “T. N. T.” (trinitrotoluene), an explosive with which many women were filling shells. In the year 1916, 112 cases of toxic jaundice among female workers and thirty-one deaths were reported to the Home Office. Up to the summer of 1916 the majority of the cases seem to have been caused by “dope poisoning.” On August 8 of that year a representative of the War Office and Admiralty stated that several satisfactory nonpoisonous “dopes” had been discovered, and the manufacture of the poisonous substance ceased in September. The new dopes were not without harmful effects on the health of the workers, causing in some cases headache, dryness of the throat, coughs, nausea and serious anemia, but not jaundice.
Workers on “T. N. T.” sometimes contract an annoying eczema as well as the more dangerous toxic jaundice, and it is feared that the substance renders some women permanently sterile.[201] Even when they are not sickened by the poison, the hair and skin of workers handling “T. N. T.” often turn bright yellow. For this reason workers on the substance have received the nickname of “canaries.”
Instructions for the prevention of “T. N. T.” poisoning were issued by the Ministry on February 19, 1917. They were designed to prevent the absorption of the poison through the skin, which was believed to be the principal means of infection. Working “costumes” to be washed at least weekly, and washing accommodations were to be provided, and each worker was to receive free daily a pint of milk. After a fortnight of work on “T. N. T.” processes at least a fortnight on other work was to be given, and a weekly medical examination was compulsory, with removal of any workers found affected. A special person was to be appointed in each work place to see that the rules were carried out. The statistics on cases of toxic jaundice caused by “T. N. T.” show that these precautions were effective in greatly reducing the disease. From October through December, 1916, 86 cases and 23 deaths were reported, while during the same period in 1917, although many more workers were exposed, only 29 cases and four deaths were reported. In April, 1918, it was claimed that the disease had been “almost abolished,” no fatal case having been returned since February.[202]
Welfare Supervision
In the improvement of working conditions of women during the war much stress has been laid on what is known in England as “welfare supervision.” At the beginning of the war it was estimated that there were about eighty such supervisors in the country.
The first steps in this direction were taken by the Home Office, in its early permits allowing night work, which were made dependent on the supervision of women. The Health of Munition Workers Committee devoted one of its first memoranda to the subject.[203] The committee spoke of the need, as an aid in obtaining the best possible output, of some special machinery for taking up grievances and matters of discipline and personal welfare:
The committee desire to record their unanimous conviction that a suitable system of welfare supervision ... is essential in munition works where women and girls are employed, and, they must add, urgently necessary.