The Industrial Health Research Board

Abstract

THE eighteenth annual report of the Industrial Health Research Board up to June 1938 (H.M. Stationery Office. Is. net) contains a summary of the results of twenty years work, and describes the work of the current year. During its twenty years of activity, an attempt has been made to discover new ways and means of improving working conditions in factories and workshops, and the results of shortening the hours of labour, of splitting up shifts and of introducing rest pauses have been studied, and the influence of environmental conditions and methods of work upon the output and the health of the workers has been investigated. During the present year, the Board has investigated the relation between illumination and industrial efficiency, problems of noise and deafness, dust and ill-health, toxic solvents, work at high temperatures and ventilation. Vocational psychology applied to vocational selection and guidance in industry, vocational tests for skilled and unskilled occupations and tests of accident prone-ness are other subjects to which considerable attention is now being directed.