In fact there was some question over the safety of the baby’s gas mask. Despite instruction courses, few parents were totally happy with putting their child in an airtight chamber. Health Visitors and Child Welfare Centres gave lessons on how to use the mask. When the gas masks were made people didn’t realise that asbestos was a dangerous substance. With the baby inside the mask, an adult could start to use the hand pump. This was pushed back and forth to pump air into the mask. Attached to this was a rubber tube shaped like a concertina with a handle. There was an asbestos filter on the side of the mask, and this absorbed poisonous gases. The canvas had a rubber coating to stop gas seeping through the material, and the straps were tied securely so that the mask was airtight. Then they wrapped the canvas part around the baby's body with the straps fastened under its bottom like a nappy, and its legs dangling free below. There were also special gas masks for babies - parents placed their baby inside the mask so that the head was inside the steel helmet and the baby could see through the visor. The gas mask in the picture was designed for people who had breathing difficulties or other medical problems and was more like a helmet as it fitted over an adult's entire head. An advisor to the government - Liddell Hart - told the government to expect 250,000 deaths in the first week of the war alone. The government had planned for tens of thousands of deaths in London alone. In 1938, the British Government gave everyone, including babies, gas masks to protect them in case the Germans dropped poison gas bombs on Britain.
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