--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 11 number: 4 published: 1908-02 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "A Plea for Pure Air," *Improvement Era* 11, no. 4 (February 1908): 303–305.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1104unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera1104unse start_page: 303 end_page: 305 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1908-02) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1104unse publication_year: 1908 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1908, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # A Plea for Pure Air A PLEA FOR PURE AIR. A friend in one of the northern settlements writes the Era asking if something can be done to prevent "our good bishops, janitors, and other ward officers from poisoning the Saints in their meetinghouses, by shutting out the pure, fresh air with which the Lord has so richly blessed us?" He says, further, that ''it is no uncommon thing to have women and children return from meeting with bad headaches, because of the foul air." Of course, the only remedy for foul air is fresh air, and this every person should have. Complaint should be made by the people to the local authorities, where there is neglect in supplying it to congregations. The authorities surely realize the value of pure air, and should not be slow to provide it. Warming and ventilation are so important to health and vigor of mind, that the condition of the atmosphere of both public and private buildings — churches and homes — should receive the most careful consideration. Neglect in this respect is the cause of an incalculable amount of human disease and suffering. In the winter season there should be not only pure air, but warm, pure air, in buildings occupied by people. The temperature, where persons are not engaged in exercise, should be from 63 to 65 degrees. The janitor should be provided with thermometers at different places in the room to determine the degrees of the atmosphere. This subject is not only important, but it embraces a vast field for much care and thought on the part of those who build churches and homes. What is the best method of heating? How can pure air best be 304 IMPROVEMENT ERA. supplied? How best can the foul air be expelled? All these are questions to be carefully considered. However, the main question, for houses already built, is, how best can we maintain the purity of the atmosphere by expelling foul and admitting fresh air without draughts? By throwing wide open the doors and windows the air is soon renewed, but the process, probably, would be attended with danger to the inmates from the violence with which the air currents would enter and leave the room. Look around, then, in your home or meetinghouse, and see if there is any provision for ventilation, except by doors and windows. Are there any mechanical means, such as gratings in the ceilings or cornices, leading into the open air by means of flues? Are there any ventilators in the roofs of your church? Any pipes or other means by which the air may pass in and out? And if so, are these means in order? Is the congregation willing to have the windows and doors thrown open, during a meeting, frequently enough to supply fresh air? When all these questions are answered, we shall probably find that neither the good bishop nor the janitor, nor the ward ofiicers, are altogether responsible for the bad air. It is a heritage of the badly planned house , and all are equally responsible . But there are things that can be done, even in badly ventilated houses. When they are unoccupied, they may be filled with fresh air. When a meeting is adjourned, the house by being thrown open may be' filled with fresh air, instead of being locked up for a week with all the accumulated foul air. Before a meeting begins, the room may be thoroughly filled with fresh air. Devices may be put on windows, throwing the air Up in the room instead of out over the congregation. In a warm room, when the obnoxious gases rise, the upper windows may be let down to admit the impure air to escape; in a cool room, when the gases fall or mix freely with the air breathed, ventilation from the doors or lower windows is best accomplished. Fresh air should also be permitted to freely enter every dwelling, day and. night, especially bed rooms. When human beings utilize a room, it is soon charged with carbolic acid, one of the foremost products that vitiate the air, also with watery vapor, and ammonia and organic matter, especially bacteria, all of which combine to render the atmosphere not only unfit but dangerous for EDITOR'S TABLE. 305 breathing. Medical authorities generally agree that a healthy person should be provided with 1,000 cubic feet of fresh air per hour. When the number of people in a completely closed, ordinary meetinghouse is counted, and the size of the room is taken into account, it is not difficult to understand why, after a two-hour meeting, either with or without heat, the women and children go home with headaches, and the men have slept during the services. The people in their homes, and the authorities in the wards, are instructed to add to the observance of the Word of Wisdom, to healthful exercise, and to personal cleaLliness,by bathing often in pure water, this motto for their guide to physical health: Sunlight, warmth, and thorough ventilation. On the other hand: cheerfulness, communion with the Spirit of God, and the practice of the moral virtues, will promote and preserve both physical and spiritual health and vigor.