Pencils

Pencils. The production of P. is associated with certain occupational hazards. In the preparation department of the factory, ball mills and mixing drums are used to grind the components of pencil coloring material into the finest powder: graphite, aniline or mineral pigments, dextrin, clay, etc.; they are mixed in specific proportions according to the pencil grade. The resulting mass is moistened with water and ground to a thick dough consistency. During this process, large amounts of dust (graphite, aniline pigments) are usually released into the air. The aniline pigments used in the pencil industry mostly belong to the triphenylmethane dye group, which are significantly toxic. The coloring dough prepared in the preparation department is placed in press cylinders, then extruded and placed in a dryer. This work is partly done manually, and workers' hands and clothing become heavily contaminated, resulting in dermatitis and strong skin discoloration. To remove pigments from hands, even strong substances are often used, for example, a solution of bleaching lime, which also causes damage to the epidermis with frequent use. In the wood-working departments of pencil factories, large amounts of wood dust are also produced from planing, milling, and grinding machines. Dermatitis is observed in workers in these departments. Due to production technical requirements, lacquers made with highly volatile solvents are used for coloring pencils, as drying must occur within 1-2 minutes. Cellulose lacquers are often used, with solvents being various mixtures of amyl and butyl acetate, acetone, methyl, ethyl, and benzyl alcohols, ethyl ether, etc. Alcohol lacquers are also used with solvents: ethyl and methyl alcohols, acetone with admixtures of methyl ketone, ethyl ketone, propyl ketone, acetal, and small amounts of allyl alcohol. In addition to occupational poisonings and injuries from aniline P. (see below), cases of pigment entering the body are common due to the habit of schoolchildren and illiterate people putting P. in their mouths to obtain a brighter line on paper. Depending on the degree of toxicity of the P., this may not be insignificant. Perfume pencils are made in the form of short sticks from a mixture of fatty substances and pigment; they are used mainly by artists for makeup (see.) of the face. These pencils contain lard, wax, spermaceti, clay, and pigments of various colors, mainly mineral, insoluble in water, sometimes consisting of lead, copper, and arsenic compounds, which also causes occupational hazards during their production and when using the pencils for makeup. For making perfume pencils, pigments are used in the form of very fine powders, which easily become airborne and enter workers' bodies with the inhaled air. During the melting of lard, wax, and spermaceti, partial decomposition of these substances occurs, with the release of small amounts of carbon monoxide and acrolein into the air. On the skin, makeup P. often cause irritation, and sometimes dermatitis. Artistic P. are prepared by pressing mixtures of chalk and clay colored with aniline or mineral pigments, with the addition of dextrin as a binder. P. for glass and porcelain are often made by the artisanal method by casting molten mixtures of wax, lard, spermaceti, and dry mineral pigment (vermilion, ochre, red lead, Prussian blue) in molds. The occupational hazards in making these P. are the same as in making makeup P. Mechanical P. differ from ordinary ones in that they have a device making the inner core of the P. movable. The outer shell of mechanical P. is made of metal, bone, ebonite, or galalite (an artificial product of casein condensation with formaldehyde). During the mechanical processing of bone, ebonite, and galalite on ordinary lathes and polishing machines, large amounts of dust are produced, from which workers should be protected; additionally, when working with galalite, formaldehyde is released into the air, irritating the eyes and respiratory tract due to decomposition of galalite when cutting with tools and During grinding.

P. Vinokurov.

Injuries from aniline pencils. A special surgical interest is represented by damage inflicted by 'ink' pencils, which sometimes also have the character of an occupational injury. Fragments of pencil remaining in the wounds from such injuries, on one hand, exert a strong and very harmful effect on the surrounding tissues, whether it be skin, subcutaneous tissue, aponeuroses, muscles, tendons, or bones: these tissues become necrotic; on the other hand, a general toxic effect of the aniline foreign body is sometimes observed—jaundice, diarrhea, feverish condition, nervous phenomena. It is clear that doctors, and especially surgeons and physicians at first aid stations, must be well informed about injuries from aniline pencils. Clinic. Injuries from aniline P. are most frequently observed in office workers and stenographers who use sharply sharpened pencils; the hand and fingers are most often injured, less frequently—the lower extremities, face, head, trunk. Usually with careless movement, and sometimes intentionally, the tip of the P. pierces the skin or mucous membrane (e.g., lips), enters the loose tissue, breaks off there and remains. The entrance wound heals quickly, giving neither suppuration nor severe pain; patients often forget about the injury received; however, after several days, a hardening and swelling appear around the site of the puncture; the skin over it remains pale, unlike ordinary inflammatory infiltrates, sometimes taking on a special bluish tint; there is still no pain. After incision of the swelling or after its spontaneous opening, a fistula is formed, from which a liquid discharge of violet color appears, usually not containing bacteria. Left to its own course or improperly treated, the process has no tendency to heal; the fistula continues to discharge colored liquid; the hardening gradually increases, involving more and more new tissues. Khodkov described a non-healing wound that came under his observation 15 months after the injury. As stated, the process usually runs aseptically, since aniline dyes do not favor the development of bacteria; but in some cases, secondary infection has been described, and then an admixture of pus appeared in the wound discharge, and 'with its retention—elevation of temperature, lymphangitis, local inflammatory phenomena. Symptoms of general poisoning, such as headache, general weakness, have been described only in isolated cases; particularly indicative is the case of Gartenmeister, when the patient developed yellowing of the sclera without pathological changes from the liver, diarrhea without violation of the regimen. Fatal intoxications have not been described.—The second, more favorable clinical form is aniline paronychia; with it, patients do not indicate received punctures or cuts; without apparent cause, swelling and hardening of the finger appear, usually painless, without redness, but accompanied by elevation of temperature, often—lymphangitis, headache, general weakness. When such a paronychia is incised, pus usually does not form, and it is possible only to open a small superficial cavity or channel, the walls of which are colored violet, and the surrounding tissue is homogenized, edematous; these paronychia have been called 'necrotic' (Iz-len). The course of these is relatively benign due to the fact that here the aniline dye is present only in very small quantities; it is sufficient to scrape out the colored tissues and apply wet dressings to obtain healing in a few days. Pathological anatomy and pathogenesis. Experiments on animals and histological studies of the excised infiltrates in patients show that the basis of the pathological changes is aseptic necrosis, in particular, necrosis of the vessel walls (with thrombosis). In the following days, necrosis involves larger and larger areas of surrounding tissues, sparing nothing; the painless course of the process apparently depends on the fact that nerve trunks also undergo necrosis and conductivity along them is disrupted. Healing in animals occurs by very slow granulation and after rejection of the dead parts ends with scarring within 10 weeks. In humans, the process runs even more slowly, the ulcers are of even more severe character. In view of the frequency of injuries to the fingers and hand, one has to encounter necrosis involving tendons, bones; relatively early, X-ray films reveal rarefaction of bone substance in the area of aniline necrosis.—Protection from injuries by aniline pencils consists, first, in widely informing the population about the danger of aniline injury, and second, in the mandatory requirement to put a cap on the tip of the pencil after work is finished. '78 Treatment. The only correct method of treatment for injury by an aniline pencil is emergency excision of the necrotic focus within the limits of healthy, uncolored tissues. The operation is the simpler, the earlier it is performed; in the first hours, it is possible to limit oneself to excising only the wound channel, since there is no necrosis and infiltrate yet; the wound can then be sutured tightly. In the following days, if, despite the excision of all pathologically altered tissue, the edges of the wound do not appear quite fresh, it is safer to leave the wound open and subsequently manage it under wet dressings and expose it to the rays of a mercury-quartz lamp. In cases of necrotic paronychia, relatively rapid recovery has been described from a simple incision followed by treatment with quartz.

m. Egorov.