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37
ACCIDENT CAUSED THROUGH
THE DISCHARGE OF CHEMICALS INTO
BROADWALL SEWER.
The atmosphere of London sewers, although offensive to
the sense of smell, seldom becomes so foul as to expose the
lives of sewermen to the dangers of sudden poisoning or
suffocation. Ordinary sewage when lying stagnant for considerable
periods of time in old-fashioned brick-built and
badly ventilated inverts, many of which still remain in connexion
with the Metropolitan system, does not evolve gas in
sufficient quantity or of such degree of potency as to reduce
the atmosphere to a lethal state. Even when the means of
ventilation are of the most primitive character, enough pure
air is mixed with the impure to neutralize hurtful properties.
Besides, people whose business it is to work in vitiated
atmospheres are less sensitive than others to their unwholesome
influence. By acclimatization they become, in a measure,
impervious to the poison. Statistics, as far as they are obtainable,
appear to confirm this view. Flushers engaged in the
service of Local Authorities are liable as a class to no higher
rate of mortality than workmen occupied in other kinds of
Municipal employment. They do not suffer more frequently
than others from the attacks of Zymotic disease, nor incur
a greater risk from the chances of fatal accident. Indeed,
deaths from suffocation in the Metropolitan sewers during the
last twenty years may be counted on the fingers of one hand.
Now, if dangerous fouling result from the presence of gas
derived from the decomposition of ordinary sewage: Since
many of the sewers of the Metropolis, traversed day after day
by sewermen in the regular course of their employment,
contain accumulated deposit to the depth of several inches,