Fur Production

FUR PRODUCTION, the tanning of furs from the skins of various domestic and wild animals. The skin removed from an animal and not subjected to tanning quickly rots in its raw state, while in a dried state it becomes hard and brittle. Fur tanning is achieved by a series of operations following one another in the following order: 1) soaking, 2) fleshing, 3) pickling or souring, 4) drying, 5) finishing, and 6) dyeing. Soaking is carried out in vats with clean water and has the aim of softening and saturating the skin with water. Fleshing is the removal of the subcutaneous tissue with a sharp knife. Pickling is produced by immersing the skins in soured bread mash (primarily from oat flour) with the addition of NaCl. Under the influence of the organic acids formed (lactic, propionic, CO₂), the skin swells and gradually becomes more flexible and elastic. At the present time, pickling is almost everywhere replaced by so-called pickling, i.e., the treatment of skins with a solution of sulfuric acid and NaCl, which achieves the same effect as pickling. Next comes drying at a temperature of 35-40° and finishing by kneading and cleaning in blind and perforated drums and splitting on a comb. This concludes the operations for goods that do not require dyeing; the larger part of furs, after the indicated preliminary treatment, is subjected to dyeing. Two types of dyes are used for dyeing furs: 1) natural dyes of plant origin (camphor extract, turmeric, etc.) and 2) artificial organic dyes. The most important of the latter are so-called ursols—derivatives of p-phenylenediamine, which give a dyeing substance of a certain shade on the hair upon oxidation with hydrogen peroxide or bichromate in the presence of various mordants; there are several dozen different brands of ursol (brand D—pure p-phenylenediamine, brand R—p-amidophenol, etc.). Ursols are especially widely used in various imitation dyeings (e.g., rabbit or cat to look like marten, etc.). Dyeing is carried out by the dipping method (by immersing the skins in a bath with a dye solution) if the entire skin is to be dyed in one color, and by the painting method (by applying the dye with brushes to the hair of the skin) if only the hair shaft is to be dyed. The main hazards of fur production are 1) dampness and soaking, 2) substances that act irritatively on the skin, 3) dust, 4) the danger of infection, and 5) ursol dyes. Working in dampness is characteristic of preparatory operations (soaking, fleshing, so-called wet workshops) and of dyeing. In the dyeing of karakul to this day the method of trampling the skins with feet in vats with a dye solution has been preserved. Because of this, among furriers—wet workers—joint diseases are very common. Thus, according to data from the Leipzig sick fund, 15 rheumatic diseases occur per 100 wet workers, whereas for all workers this figure is 9.5. According to data from Rosenberg and Rosenbaum (1924), 25% of all wet workers examined by them suffered from chronic joint rheumatism. Due to work in dampness on the one hand and pressure during the work process on the other hand, sharp changes are noted in the nails of certain professions (especially during splitting on a comb). Working with a pickling solution can be a cause of skin diseases, especially in the case where fleshing is performed after pickling. Dustiness is especially great when working at the drums (unloading), reaching 50-100 mg per 1 m³ of air, but even in the splitting workshop it amounts to up to 25 mg. The consequence of this is the significant spread among furriers of diseases of the upper respiratory tract (bronchitis). Cases of infection with anthrax occur exclusively only in the processing of sheepskins: handicraft sheepskin coat factories have been until now the main foci of occupational anthrax (see Leather production). The main hazard of fur production is associated with the action of toxic dyes—ursols. Inhalation of ursol dust leads to a specific occupational disease of furriers—ursol asthma (see Toluidene-benzene). Studies of the air of Moscow fur factories have shown that ursol is contained in the air in quantities from 0.0018 to 0.035 mg per 1 m³ of air; part of it gets into the air with dust (drums, splitting workshop), part with the finest splashes of the dye solution (for example, when painting with brushes). With the introduction of dyeing with ursols into industrial practice, among furrier workers, diseases of the upper respiratory tract and the specific disease—bronchial asthma—began to spread widely. According to data from the Leipzig sick fund, where a large number of fur factories are concentrated, respiratory diseases among furriers constituted 28.2% of all diseases, and in 1913—31.5% compared to 18.2% among workers of other industries. According to data from O. N. Cheltsova (1929), out of 106 examined workers of a wet-fur factory, 53.8% suffered from rhinitis, 31.0% from pharyngitis, 14.0% from bronchitis; in 15 people (14.0%) clinically expressed bronchial asthma was noted. According to materials from the Central Institute of Occupational Diseases (Moscow, 1929), out of 425 workers of fur production who in one degree or another deal with ursol, 289 cases (68.0%) are respiratory tract diseases, 259 cases (61.0%) are respiratory organ diseases; among the latter are 33 cases of bronchial asthma (7.8%) and 125 cases of emphysema and pre-emphysematous states (30.0%). Among workers engaged in ursol dyeing, skin diseases are also very common, occurring according to the mentioned materials in 26.6% of the examined workers. The most important preventive measures in ursol dyeing are the following: 1) painting of skins by the painting method must be mechanized; 2) splitting of skins must also be mechanized; 3) all departments must have local exhaust ventilation; 4) unloading of drums must be carried out using special platforms that exclude the need for the worker to climb inside the drum; 5) a thorough medical selection of workers must be carried out with the aim of eliminating persons possessing increased sensitivity to ursol; workers working with ursol must undergo systematic medical examinations with the aim of identifying initial forms of ursol asthma for their appropriate treatment or for transferring workers suffering from them to another job. In order to reduce the soaking of workers in wet workshops, manual fleshing must be replaced by machine fleshing; workers must be supplied with rational special clothing. The implementation of fundamental health-improving measures in fur production is possible only with a significant enlargement of enterprises, with the replacement of existing semi-handicraft processing methods with mechanized ones, and with the wide implementation of measures for the rationalization of all production processes. Detailed sanitary rules on the design and maintenance of fur production enterprises are contained in the mandatory decree of NKT of March 23, 1930.