Feshn, Egypt, Feb. 14, 1907.
To the Editor:—During a trip to Turkey last fall I learned some
interesting and disagreeable facts concerning the fig packing
industry, especially at Smyrna.
Nothing about the factory was clean, neither the packers, the rooms
nor the utensils. The season, of course, is short and the packing
employes are enlisted from the street rabble and are said to include
many women of questionable character. Those who have visited oriental
cities know what the hygiene and physical conditions of the packers
must be, coming from the most insanitary homes and belonging to a
class where diseases of the most loathsome and infectious types run
riot.
The figs are packed by hand (the stems being bitten off with the
packers' teeth) and are molded with their hands and mouths. During the
process of packing the figs are dipped in sea water. This water is
taken from the bay at the very shore and is decidedly filthy.
Last year the Turkish government prohibited the use of water taken
near the shore, but this, like all other orders of the Turk, was
simply a device of the officials to extort money from the proprietors
for the privilege of taking water from the most convenient
place. Between the packers’ mouths and hands and the polluted waters
of Smyrna Bay one may judge what wonderful possibilities there are of
contracting diseases from eating "choice Smyrna figs."
H. B. Hanson.