Jasper County Democrat, Volume 1, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 September 1898 — Trades that Kill. [ARTICLE]

Trades that Kill.

There are many legitimate occupations or trades that steadily kill those who are engaged in them. Lead is death-dealing to all who use it in their Work, as house painters, gilders, calico printers, type founders, potters and braziers. Mercury is a foe to life. Those who make mirrors, barometers or thermometers, who etch or color wood or felt, will soon feel the effect of the nitrate of mercury in teeth, gums and the tissues of the body. Silver kills those who handle it, and photographers, makers of hair dyes and ink and other preparations ere long turn gray, while a deadly weakness subdues them. Copper enters .into the comijosition of many articles of every-day life, and too soon those who work in bronzing and similar decorative processes lose teeth and sight, and, finally, life. Makers of wall paper grow pale and sick from the arsenic in its coloring, and match-makers ’lose strength and vitality from the excess of phosphorus used in their business. But mankind is by nature brave, and very f.?w are deterred from action because of supposed danger. If the great bpilcers and engineers of the world would stop and ask, “How many lives will this undertaking cost?” it is probable that the world would be without so;iie*of the greatest triumphs of modern 1 bought. Every-day life and common occupations are full of silent courage, and all around are workers who bravely die in the harness.