Matchsticks Production Deformed Women and Children

Everyone is aware that the early years of England's industrialization were not pleasant. Cities became shitholes of diseases and pollution as a result of the influx of job seekers.

Making matchsticks was one particularly filthy task that women and children performed that caused them to glow in the dark. Additionally, it contributed to "phossy jaw," a condition that results in the jaw bone dying due to phosphorus toxicity.

In the 19th century, hundreds of factories across England were devoted to the manufacture of matchsticks. Workers dipped treated wood into a phosphorous solution for 12 to 16 hours per day, then dried and chopped the sticks into matches.

This work was poorly compensated, and the majority of those employed in this industry were children. In addition to being at risk for getting tuberculosis and developing rickets as a result of working long hours in a confined, dark factory, the production of matchsticks posed a unique danger: phossy jaw.

Phosphorous is a vital ingredient for living organisms, particularly in the form of calcium phosphate in the skeleton. However, excessive amounts might lead to phosphorus poisoning.

Historically, those who were exposed to white phosphorus in matchstick factories had medical illnesses. Inhaling phosphorus fumes could lead to lung inflammation and other respiratory complications.

Phosphorus in the air and on the walls and floors frequently gave the factory a bluish-green color. Those who ingested too much phosphorus could have bright vomit, bluish breath, and a glowing mouth ring.

Charlotte Roberts and her colleagues from Durham University have recently examined the remains of a young adolescent who likely suffered the same fate as these matchstick workers.

The skeleton of the teenager was discovered at a Quaker cemetery in North Shields, Northeast England, dating between the early 18th and mid-19th centuries. A variety of matchstick manufacturers existed in the region during the time, according to historical records.

The child, whose gender is unknown, passed away between the ages of 12 and 14 , and had suffered scurvy, rickets, and maybe tuberculosis and phossy jaw. Roberts and her colleagues discovered pathological evidence of these problems throughout the skeleton of the child. Abnormally bent thigh bones reflect a defect in the mineralization of the adolescent's bones, most likely caused by rickets; adolescents who worked long hours in factories did not receive enough sunlight to create the vitamin D required for healthy bone growth.

However, an extra, thin layer of bone on the legs and head indicates a second metabolic disorder: scurvy, which is caused by insufficient vitamin C ingestion.

Additional bony changes in the rib cage suggest the teenager had a pulmonary problem, perhaps triggered by indoor or outdoor pollution, or perhaps it was related to tuberculosis.

Clearly, this individual suffered from a variety of dietary inadequacies and childhood ailments, and as Roberts and her colleagues write, "the skeleton of this individual reflects the difficult environment in which he or she lived and worked during their brief existence."

But it’s the state of the lower jaw that connects this adolescent to the industry of matchstick making. The researchers report that roughly 11% of those exposed to phosphorus fumes developed phossy jaw approximately five years after initial exposure.

The illness is essentially an infection of the mandible caused by persistent phosphorus exposure. The left side of this adolescent's mandible has extensive damage and a peculiar bone mass in the center.

Historical records often compare sufferers of phossy jaw to people with leprosy because of their obvious physical disfigurement and the condition’s social stigma.

Even though complications such as phossy jaw were well known during the peak of matchstick production in England during the 1800s, the use of white phosphorus in this industry was not outlawed until 1910. That means that for nearly a century, mostly poor women and children were exposed to toxic doses of phosphorus and hazardous factory conditions.