HC Deb 26 February 1907 vol 169 c1414
SIR CHARLES DILKE (Gloucestershire, Forest of Dean)

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been called to the fact that a further death from necrosis in the match trade is reported for January of this year; and whether, in view of the international interest taken in the question of phosphorus poisoning, he will issue to the House full details of this case, as was done by the then Secretary of State with regard to the cases occurring in 1905.

(Answered by Mr. Secretary Gladstone.) Yes, Sir. When I heard of this very regrettable occurrence I at once directed a visit to be paid to the factory by the chief inspector of factories and Mr. Cunynghame, one of my Assistant Under-Secretaries of State. They discovered no breach of the rules. The case was a very exceptional one, the deceased being a man with one leg, who had to work in a sitting posture and had also an inveterate habit of chewing tobacco. For both these reasons he was exposed to danger which his fellow workers escaped. He had, moreover, worked in yellow phosphorus for years before special rules were established, and had, it is known, long had the seeds of necrosis in his system. I shall propose an Amendment of the special rules to prohibit the chewing of tobacco. The Report made to me by Mr. Cunynghame and the chief inspector will be laid upon the Table of the House.