# Working conditions

Exposure to harmful chemicals | trinitrotoluene, a dangerous explosive TNT
Threat of explosion | Silvertown, London East End, 1917 (73 people died) National Shell Factory, Chiwell, 1918 (130 people died)
Exhausting shifts | 10 - 12 hours a day some of them worked 13 days without a break
Gender gap | THEY WORKED FOR HALF THE SALARY OF MEN

They worked with dangerous chemicals, specially with TNT, trinitrotoluene, and they suffered TNT poisoning. By being regulalry in contact with it their skin turned yellow. This is the reason why they were nicknamed as the "canary girls".

> Everything that that power touches goes yellow. All the girls´ faces were yellow, all around their mouth. They had their own canteens in which everything was yellow…..Everything they touched went yellow-chairs, tables, everything.

> Ethel Dean, 1918

From Imperial War Museums web site

Woman worker at Woolwich Arsenal

The yellow skin was the most visible effect of being exposed to chemicals like TNT wihtout the proper protection, but they often suffered severe health problems like anemia, tooth decay, liver failure, harm to the immune system....and sometimes they gave birth to "canary babies"

# Put yourselves in their shoes

Extensive information about munitionettes´ working conditions is provided by different sources and testimonies.

- Imagine that you are one of them. Descrive your working day in your journal.
- Your presentation could be assessed on the following rubric:

Element | Excellent | Accomplished | Satisfactory | Unsatisfactory
Information | very relevant information | relevant information | some relevant information | not relevant information
Organisation | very clear and well organised | adecuate connection among ideas | weakly organised | unorganised and confusing
Format | varied grammatical structure without errors | quite varied grammatical structure few errors | repetitive structures several errors | difficult to understand numerous errors

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