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Show SHARP DUST PARTICLES 'HOOK' THEIR WAY INTO MEMBRANES AND DISEASE RESULTS Science Tells Why Some Trades, Dry Sweeping and Motoring Mo-toring on Certain Highways Are Dangerous to Health ip Bringing on Respiratory Maladies. t , - 1 Cross-Section of Human Head Shewing Mucou . Membrane of Nose and Throat. SCIENTIFIC research Is gradually gradual-ly finding out why dust kills one out ot every seven persons. Tbe Harvard Medical School, the United States Public Health Service, various insurance companies and the, great labor organizations of the country coun-try are all interested in the problem. For example, according to Ur. L. R. Thompson, of the United States Public Pub-lic Health Service, the sickliest record of granite workers shows that the greater part of illness proceeds from respiratory conditions and that respiratory respir-atory diseases are three t'mes as prev nlent among granite workers as among workers in general industry. "It is clear." said Dr. Thompson, "that wherever there is a great i amount of granite dust there is a dan-I dan-I gerous hazard, a mortality which seems inevitable and which is rising all the time." j Incidentally, according to 'Federal sU'lstics, from 4.500,000 to 5,000,000 i persons are employed in the dusty 1 trade, but everyone, from the man who fears "dry sweeping" by house-j house-j vives on their front steps to the mo- torist who must find his way through j clouds of dust on the hi"hway, Is af-j af-j fected by the menace of fine particles in the air. Various theories have been proposed to explain why dust should be such a danger to health. The usual explanation explana-tion seeks the cause in the tenderness of the mucous membrane lining of the throat and nose. Healthy "throats and noses secrete a rtuid, the mucus, which is just 'iffl- clent to take care o ordinary dust In the" air. It that amount should be exceeded, ex-ceeded, the dust becomes too great to be handled by ' e mucus and the Just penetrates int 'he decrer parts of the body lining. Dust is of various kinds, but whether wheth-er It is organic or inorganic In origin j makes no difference. What makes the dust particles dangerous is their Shape. Particles that have sharp cup tiers, such as dust from marble, metal, wqod or stone, cut into the membrane very much as an. old-fashioned knitting needle cuts Into worsted and there the dust particles become fastened. The mucus fluid referred to passes oyer those particles, moving them to and fro, and causing the membrane to become tender and tlier inflamed. Should the pro' ss become continuous, continu-ous, as so often happens, serious sinus conditions result and in aggravated cases, tuberculosis may be their termination. termi-nation. That, in brief, is what happens. Scientists have tried with all the resources at their command to combat com-bat dust in the air, but so far, with a few exceptions, the results have not been fruitful. As a means of prevention, preven-tion, suggestions have been made In various quarters that the dust m' 'it be laid with some sort of physical or chemical means and in many sections of the United States municipalities have been laying the dust with calcium cal-cium chloride. That is a chemical capable of absorbing a high degree of moisture from the air, hygros"opic, it is called, which acts as a binder of dust on the highways. It also has great germicidal value. |