NITRO DERIVATIVES OF BENZENE 241Year19171918used cases of poisoning in Germany were exceptionally numerous. Poisoning
cases, often fatal, would occur despite the fact that the workshops were thoroughly
ventilated and the workers took such safety measures as wearing protective gloves
and using helmets against inhaling the dust and vapours of the substance.
No statistical data are available for the whole period of the war. Neverthe
less there are numerous fragmentary pieces of information about cases of poison-
ing in the manufacture and application of dinitrobenzene. For example, of about
4000 workers at one of the ammunition plants in Bavaria, nearly 2000 persons
were poisoned by dinitrobenzene. In one of the workshops of another factory,
TABLE 37
STATISTICS OF CASES OF POISONING CAUSED BY DINITROBENZENEMonthPoisoned by dinitrobenzene
number % of the personnel
March^16 16.6
April 15 13.6
May^12 13.8
June^24 30.8
July^14 12.6
August^19 21.2
September 17 12.2
October 9 8.2
November^5 4.6
December 3 2.3
January 10 7.3
February 19 12.5
March 19 10.0
April 16 11.7
May^21 16.4
June 19 13.3
July 20 10.0
August 27 17.4
September 2 1.4
October 6 5.8within one month of the year 1917, 30 cases of poisoning were recorded, which
corresponded to 46.8% of the personnel.
It has been observed that poisoning occurs more often on hot days than on
cooler ones owing to the higher vapour pressure of the compound at higher tern-
peratures. For example, in one of the German factories using dinitrobenzene foralling shells, the numbers of poisoning cases recorded in several months of 1917
find 1918 are given in Table 37.
Observations by several authors have shown that women are more sensitive
to dinitrobenzene than men. Poisoning by dinitrobenzene results in increased
sensitivity and hence makes the sufferer more liable to repeated poisoning, espe-
cially in less resistant persons. Out of 179 workers of a German factory who were