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• THE CAUSES OF TRACTOR SICKNESS EXPLAINED.
Page 66
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An interesting article on tractor sickness is published in the July number of The Practitioner. The author, a. doctor, says that nearly every full-time tractor driver suffers, at the start, from the same symptoms as a schoolboy smoking his first pipe. Many acquire a tolerance, but the residue never does.
The cause is probably poisoning by carbon monoxide and other combustion products of paraffin. In some cases,
the tractors start on petrol and later switch on to paraffin. For 20 minutes or more the exhaust fumes may be black with unburnt products. Tractors which have vertical exhausts give rise to no illness ; it is only where side or down exhausts are fitted that sickness occurs, the down pipe being the worst offender.
• A tractor in second gear moves at about 3 m.p.h.', and the driver is often bathed in exhaust gases. The main trouble occurs when piston rings and valve seatings become worn.
The symptoms of the trouble are headache, vertigo and nausea, sometimes followed by vomiting and weakness of the limbs. Occasionally all food taken tastes of paraffin.