42 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[November i, 1905. 



WOMEN'S WORK IN RUBBER FACTORIES. 



AN investigation of injurious and dangerous trades in which 

 women are employed is being conducted by a joint com- 

 mittee of the Massachusetts State Federation of Women's Clubs 

 and the Women's Educational and Industrial Union of that 

 state. A recent issue of The Federation Bulletin, the organ of 

 the associations mentioned, contains a report by Mabel Parton, 

 the agent of the committee, on •' Women's Work in Rubber Fac- 

 tories : Its Effect on Health," which will be briefly summarized 

 here. 



The investigation related to twelve rubber factories, engaged 

 in the production of (i) shoes, (2) garments, (3) light rubber 

 goods, and (4) hose. Mention is made of " whatever has been 

 observed which may have hygienic significance — conditions 

 peculiar to special processes and others common to nearly all 

 women's work on rubber." 



All but a few of the women In the factories reported on han- 

 dle compounded rubber before vulcanization, and these com- 

 pounds include oxide of lead or similar material. As none of 

 the factories visited provided lunch rooms, and not all of them 

 furnished adequate washing conveniences, many of the women 

 ate their noonday meal at the work benches without first hav- 

 ing washed their hands. 



" In a few processes," says the report, "the women take the 

 material into their mouths. Makers of footballs' finish ofi ' by 

 sucking the air, and incidentally bits of waste from inside the 

 balls to make them lie flat. I find also that girls in the picking 

 room at one of the factories assist with their teeth in picking 

 olT scraps of good rubber from the ' wobs ' of cements, varnish, 

 and waste discarded in the cutting and making rooms. Some 

 of the girls at several factories have acquired the habit of chew- 

 ing the soft rubber." 



Fumes of naphtha pervade the air of the work rooms, the 

 soft rubber out of which many articles are made coming to the 

 workers who finish them, already stamped or cut into shape, 

 the parts being pressed together by hand and united with a 

 cement in which naphtha enters. "There has been some 

 reason to fear," says the report, " that manufacturers are using 

 carbon bisulphide with the naphtha for heavier cement, but I 

 have been unable to detect it in any of the factories I have 

 visited." The naphtha fumes are present, however, in nearly 

 all of the women's rooms, and those who do not actually use 

 the cement — garment stitchers, for instance — work in rooms 

 where the cement is used by others and breathe in the gas all 

 day. 



" The women who make light rubber goods," it is said, " con- 

 stantly inhale a fine talc dust. The talcum is used to keep 

 small parts from sticking to the hands, or to each other when 

 they are packed for vulcanizing, and is so fine that it flies at a 

 touch. 



"The shoe making seems to necessitate a pressure against 

 the bodies of the workers. The parts of the shoe are laid over 

 a wooden boot form and the soft edges of the rubber are pressed 

 together. In doing this the maker pushes the form hard against 

 her body — first the heel and then the toe is directed against the 

 pit of her stomach. Some of the women wear pads of cloth or 

 leather to protect themselves, but these shields are soft or soon 

 become soft, so that while friction may be prevented, the pres- 

 sure is not diverted from the one small spot." 



Mention is made of the custom in most of the factories vis- 

 ited of women working practically throughout the noon hour, 

 either to get out earlier at night, to finish their " tickets " dur- 

 ing the day in case of slow hands, or to make extra wages. 

 Whatever the object, however, the workers over time lose the 



fresh air and relaxation in the middle of the day. 



Miss Parton was struck with the pallor of the rubber factory 

 women, and from talking with them she learned that they often 

 suffer from headache, nausea, and loss of appetite when they 

 first begin work in rubber factories, and that while the symptoms 

 apparently may pass in a few weeks, they are likely to recur on 

 a return of the workers after an absence. Some of the girls 

 with whom Miss Parton talked never feel quite well while they 

 are at the work. Seventeen physicians in rubber factory towns 

 were interviewed, most of whom have found common among 

 rubber factory girls special diseases due particularly to (i) fumes 

 arising from manufacturing processes, (2) the pressure of the 

 boot form, and (3) the lack of proper nooning. 



One of the physicians who has had a large practice among 

 rubber factory operatives for the past 25 years, as well as among 

 operatives from a twine factory nearby, finds that the women 

 from the rubber factory suffer to an unusual extent from 

 anrcmia, with resulting dysmenorrhea, and attributes this from 

 fumes that are breathed in during working hours. Dr. Fred- 

 eric Coggeshall, as physician in charge of the nervous clinic 

 of the Boston Dispensary, told Miss Parton that he found 

 that one-thirteenth of all the factory girls treated worked in 

 some branch of a rubber factory ; that certain forms of func- 

 tional nervous diseases are very prevalent among this class; 

 that these complaints are closely connected with their breath- 

 ing the fumes of naphtha and carbon bisulphide. He believed 

 the work to be decidedly injurious to health, and so far as the 

 marked symptoms go that chronic poisoning with these objec- 

 tionable gases, especially perhaps the naphtha, is the principal 

 cause. 



With regard to a modification of the conditions outlined, it 

 is pointed out naphtha fumes can be carried off through regis- 

 ters placed in the floor and connected by pipes with suction 

 fans, as has been proved by one rubber factory in Massachu- 

 setts in a garment room where large quantities of very heavy 

 cement are used. Talcum powder could be treated in much the 

 same way, though troughs at the back of work benches, such 

 as are to be found at hand sorting rooms in flax mills, would be 

 better for the making rooms than the floor register. 



" Shoe workers," it is said, " could be greatly relieved of the 

 pressure of the boot form by use of proper shields. The shields 

 sold by one of the shoe factories to its employes are right in 

 principle, but they do not stand wear. They are made of stiff 

 leather and slightly concave, so that the part which comes di- 

 rectly over the pit of the stomach scarcely touches the body, 

 and pressure is thus diminished and distributed. But leather 

 gives way quickly and becomes soft at the pressure point. A 

 shield built on this principle, of material which would bear the 

 strain, should answer the purpose. It is not necessary in any of 

 the work to put the rubber into the mouth, and the rubber 

 chewing habit is of course, under the control of employes." 



It is pointed out that the conditions of eating with unwashed 

 hands and working at noon are only partially within the con- 

 trol of the employes. Even if noon time work is nominally op- 

 tional, it may be actually necessary, owing to the size of the 

 tickets given out.in connection with the speed of the operatives. 

 It is at present against the law in Massachusetts for a woman or 

 minor to work during the midday recess, but the law is practi- 

 cally Inoperative among the hand workers because it falls to fix 

 responsibility for its enforcement. Miss Parton advises the re- 

 peal of the law which exempts employers from responsibility for 

 work done by women and minors at noon time. 



Drawing for a Pair. — Lost— On the Clifton pike, one rub- 

 ber boot. Will buy or sell. — Versailles {Kentucky) Sun. 



