Step 1: Recalling the Text:
Anees Jung's 'Lost Spring' describes the glass-blowing industry of Firozabad, where families, including children, work in cramped, poorly-lit units without safety measures.
Step 2: Listing the Hazards:
Workers labour in high-temperature furnaces, exposing their eyes constantly to intense heat and glare, which often causes them to lose their eyesight before adulthood. They also suffer burns, cuts from glass, and respiratory problems from glass dust and furnace fumes, all without masks, gloves or legal protection, since the industry operates largely outside labour-law enforcement.
Final Answer:
Workers in Firozabad's glass bangle units, often children, labour in dim, cramped spaces beside high-temperature furnaces without safety gear. Constant exposure to intense heat and glare frequently damages or destroys their eyesight before adulthood, while glass dust and fumes cause respiratory illness, and unshielded glasswork causes frequent burns and cuts — all compounded by the absence of legal protection or safety regulation in this unorganised, poverty-bound industry.