I got to take a tour of a little "Newseum" in the New York Times building that displayed some of the lead lines and brass matrices. One person on the tour asked

I got to take a tour of a little "Newseum" in the New York Times building that displayed some of the lead lines and brass matrices. One person on the tour asked if printers got sick from handling lead and our guide said, "Oh, yes!" People are surprised how industrial the process used to be, and how tough and unregulated industrial jobs were back in the 70's and the decades prior. Our guide told us that in the old NY Times building (the one shown in this film) there was a hospital on the 13th floor for people who got burned or (his word) mangled during the hot type process. The New York Times had doctors on staff for printers who got hurt badly enough that an ambulance ride uptown would take too long. A couple of the workers in the movie are wearing paper hats. That's to keep ink that's floating around in the air out of their hair. No masks! But at least their hair would be clean.