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VENTILATION IN WORKSHOPS.
A Departmental Committee appointed to enquire into ventilation
of factories and workshops has presented a first report. It is a most
interesting document, and contains much useful information. The
conclusion of the Committee is shortly : —That the amount of carbonic
acid present in the atmosphere of a given workshop should be
taken as the measure of the impurity of that atmosphere, and consequently
of the efficiency or otherwise of the ventilation. The
Committee recommends that in the exercise of the powers conferred
on the Secretary of State by section 7 of the Factory and Workshops'
Act, 1901, such a standard of ventilation should be prescribed
for workrooms, that the proportion of carbonic acid in the air therein
shall not rise during daylight beyond 12 volumes per 10,000 of air,
and that when gas or oil is used for lighting purposes, the proportion
shall not exceed 20 volumes.
Pure country air contains three volumes of carbonic acid in every
ten thousand, and even in towns this proportion is only very slightly
exceeded. In summer, whilst vegetation is active, the proportion
rises slightly at night and falls by day. In dense fogs such as the
" London particular " the proportion is enormously increased and
rises to as much as fourteen parts per ten thousand, it therefore
follows that it would be unfair to test the air of workshops in foggy
weather.
In workrooms there are two sources of an excess of carbonic acid
(a) Respiration, and (b) Combustion. During active employment a
man gives off about a cubic foot of carbonic acid an hour, and a
woman rather less. In addition to the carbonic acid, certain organic
compounds are exhaled (occasionally also the germs of disease.)
These impurities cause the stuffy sensation experienced in badly
ventilated rooms, but it is impossible to measure them, except from
the fact that they always bear a certain known proportion to the
carbonic acid exhaled. These organic impurities are much more
prejudicial to health than the carbonic acid, and unless freely diluted
or removed by ventilation they cause ill health. The mere increase
of the carbonic acid by itself (within reasonable limits) does very