Women at War…Safeguard your Health

1942-10 1942 1940s 8 pages They could supervise conditions in the workshops, rest rooms and cloakrooms, and in the factory canteens and kitchens. They could keep a check on all safety regulations, investigate the causes of every accident and case of industrial disease occurring in the factory, and w...

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Bibliographic Details
Institution:MCR - The Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick
Language:English
English
Published: London : Issued by the Communist Party of Great Britain October 1942
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10796/F8D3E174-5B3D-4A90-B4E1-57441A454922
http://hdl.handle.net/10796/0C123AAE-D5A5-44DB-B743-4F680AC56048
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Summary:1942-10 1942 1940s 8 pages They could supervise conditions in the workshops, rest rooms and cloakrooms, and in the factory canteens and kitchens. They could keep a check on all safety regulations, investigate the causes of every accident and case of industrial disease occurring in the factory, and work out ways and means of prevention which could be used in other factories. Such preventative measures can then become legally binding by means of special regulations extending the Factory Acts. They could carry out a whole number of measures to interest the workers in their own health protection, by arranging discussions and study groups, posters and exhibits, and even films and lectures, to illustrate the campaign for health, and the fight against epidemics such as 'flu, and the common cold. They could arrange classes in First Aid, and industrial welfare, or nutrition and child welfare, for the women. Everyone is interested in the question of their own health, and it is not difficult to secure the active co-operation of workers once their interest is aroused, and once they understand the need for the various measures of health protection. When they begin to feel their feet they could, together with the Factory Doctor, campaign for improved Health Services, for the periodic examination of adolescents and workers in dangerous trades, including, where necessary, X-Ray examination for the early detection and treatment of Tuberculosis. At present in every factory employing over 150 people the Factories Act ensures the provision and maintenance of a First Aid box, which is usually in charge of someone trained in Red Cross or St. John's Ambulance. This is the absolute minimum, and many factories have well-equipped First Aid rooms or departments. But however small the beginning, wherever the workers themselves take up the problem, individually and through their trade unions, it can be developed along the lines suggested above, until we achieve in this country a first rate industrial medical service. The Factories Act The first step to immediate improvements must be a knowledge of the safeguards to health which industrial workers can already claim. The abstract of the Factories Act, 1937, must by law be displayed in every factory in a prominent place where it can be read by every worker. But there are thousands of workers employed in industries which do not come under the Factories Act. In those concerns which come under the Essential Works Order, the Ministry of Labour is legally responsible for seeing that the necessary arrangements are made 6 15X/2/103/253
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