Silicosis and Lead Poisoning Among Pottery Workers

This bulletin records the results of a resurvey of the most prominent physical defects encountered among workers in pottery factories originally observed in 1919. The value of reports of this kind is exemplified in the degree of control which has been established in the interim over exposure to lead. Once a major hazard in the pottery industry and still a potential source of trouble, the problem is being solved by engineering methods and by substitution of relatively nontoxic glazes for those formerly containing soluble lead compounds. A good share of the medical and engineering studies refer to silicosis. The criteria for establishing a diagnosis are emphasized both clinically and radiologically. Valuable verifying data are provided by means of illustrative x-ray films and case histories, two necropsy protocols and reports on peritoneal response to injected dust samples in guinea pigs according to the method of Miller and Sayers. Several interesting three