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176
But these conditions do not throw light upon injury to health
resulting from insufficiency of sanitary convenience accommodation,
for such injury is chiefly manifested not in these three conditions,
hut in certain other conditions not measurable at the time, but
producing their effects, generally, many months or years afterwards.
For example, anaemia, chlorosis, and other "poor blood"
conditions, which are so prevalent among factory women and girls,
may be thus caused, and these are well-known predisposing
conditions of phthisis and other constitutional diseases. I have no
doubt at all that not a little of the wide-spread chlorosis among
these factory employees arises from the absorption into the blood of
retained by-products in the alimentary canal. Diseased conditions
of the alimentary canal and of internal organs may also be due to
the failure to exercise these physiological functions, and it is a
well-recognised medical fact that headache and conditions of
lassitude and debility frequently arise from a similar origin.
Lastly, the fact of there being one or more vacant sanitary
conveniences available in a factory or workshop at any one time
does not prove that a sufficient number has been provided, for it
would thus be possible to prove that wherever there was a vacant
sanitary convenience in any premises sufficient sanitary accommodation
had been provided, which would, of course, be absurd.
Moreover, the vacancy of sanitary conveniences depends on the hour
of inspection, the amount of observation kept upon employees by
forewomen and others, etc. Probably more accommodation is
required for "piece workers" than for "time workers."
Some of the difficulty in arranging these matters equitably and
suitably arises from the questions of leasehold which constantly
crop up in a district like Finsbury in the midst of a transition
period between a residential Borough and an industrial Borough.
During the year 62 notices have been served for insufficient
sanitary convenience accommodation in relation to factories, workshops
and workplaces, and 451 such conveniences have been
cleansed and repaired. Insufficient sanitary convenience accommodation
includes six cases in which no convenience of any kind