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203
adding that it is based upon the causes of death of 88,243 bakers
of all classes and not on bakers working in underground premises
only, where as we have seen the evil conditions mostly exist.
Moreover, the causes of mortality peculiar to bakers have
decreased in recent years. In Finsbury, an examination of the
records for the last. 5 years shows that 54 per cent. of the deaths
of persons working in Bakehouses were due to disease of the lungs.
There can be no doubt that persons working under the conditions
at present existing in underground Bakehouses breathe continually
an atmosphere polluted with the products of respiration and
combustion in a very high degree, and this coupled with long
hours and a dusty and sedentary employment doubtless exerts a
detrimental influence upon their health. The effect would be in
all probability very much more marked if there were not, at least,
two counteracting conditions favourable to health. In the first
place a baker's work does not expose him to many of the external
conditions to which occupied males generally are exposed, such
for instance as dampness and climatic conditions, chemical
poisoning, muscular strain, machinery accidents, etc. In the
second place, some of the evils produced by the polluted
atmosphere and resulting tendency to lung disease, are counteracted
by the low relative humidity which might be distinctly
favourably to certain lung conditions.