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the seams together instead of stitching them. One of the worst cases I ever saw in my life of benzol poisoning came from that. This quick pasting material was dissolved in benzol. It was very effective. It was also used to paste things into hats. The most extraordinary things were loaded with benzol. There was some factory upstate that made artificial straw out of viscose which was dissolved in benzol. That was producing benzol poisoning.
With the emergence of toluol and a number of other solvents, that problem was behind us. I think that now you've got a public conscience on the part of the manufacturers that buy stuff. They're very careful to make sure they aren't going to get workmen's compensation claims as a result of using any of these things. That's one of the first things they want to know when a new substance is sold or proposed to them by a salesman - “What's your medical record on this?” With the occupational disease law now covering everything, they have learned that it costs money to poison people. Their indifference is greatly checked. I didn't lose my faith in the human race, but I did see that there was indifference. Nobody ever desired to kill anybody by using these things, but they just didn't believe it would happen. “Anyhow it's his own fault. If he doesn't feel well, he can go somewhere else.”
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