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Unventilated Stoves.— The danger of using stoves which are not provided
with a proper means of ventilation to which I alluded in my last
Annual Report, has been emphasised by the deaths of three persons—
one in Westminster—due to poisoning from the fumes. A recent
analysis made by the Home Office of the air of three large workrooms in
Westminster, in which a particular form of stove was being used without
any special means of ventilation being provided, showed that the amount
of carbonic acid (C02) in the air immediately over the stove was 34 parts
per 10,000 in one case, 565 in the second and 87'5 in the third, while
the more poisonous carbon monoxide (CO) varied from 0-5 to 0'8. The
Home Office Inspectors (who are concerned with the warming of workshops)
held that the use of such stoves is an infringement of Section G
of the Factory and Workshop Act and requested that the stoves be
replaced by a better system of heating or be efficiently ventilated as to
prevent them interfering with the purity of the air.
There are now good forms of gas stove available with proper means
for carrying off the products of combustion. If properly fitted so as to
ensure a sufficient flue draught no vitiation of the air of the room need
ensue.
Ventilation.—It is not uncommon to see in restaurants and places of
business electric fans at work having no communication with the outside
air. They do not act as ventilators but merely agitate the air—probably
already heated and vitiated. Experiments have been carried out by two
French doctors (Sartory and Filassier) proving that these fans
cause draughts, stir up the dust and distribute it through the