Americans now live an average of five years longer than in 1909, according to a report made public tonight by the American Engineering Council. The report was drawn by the council’s committee on elimination of waste in industry.
At the same time the authors of the report warned that the lengthening of average life cannot be accepted as evident resistance to disease. Rather it seems to be the result of the “mitigation of the struggle for existence and protection of the community from communicable diseases,” the report said.
Other sections of the report show that the fight against tuberculosis and other epidemic diseases is gradually gaining; that the loss of time by workers from illness is decreasing and that more care in the eyes is an outstanding health necessity.
In 1909, Professor Irving Fisher, in a report prepared by direction of President Roosevelt, estimated that there were 3 million persons seriously ill at all times in the United States. Despite the increase in population the average number in population the average number of those ill now is estimated at 2.4 million, in the engineering report.
Tuberculosis still takes a toll of between 2 and 3 per 1,000 population annually. Typhoid takes about 15,000 lives a year, while pneumonia and influenza take about 25,000.
Hookworm is present in a large industrial area to the extent of about 5 per cent of those of working age.
The estimated loss to industry as a result of these diseases among workers is: Tuberculosis, $500 million annually; typhoid, $135 million; hookworm, $250 million; and malaria, $100 million annually.
From the Charlotte News, Sunday, Dec. 4, 1921.
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