§ Mr. FALLEasked the First Lord of the Admiralty if, in view of the recent death of one of the workers at the gunwharf shop at Portsmouth, he will appoint a medical officer, who shall be, if not a specialist, at least thoroughly conversant with the disease known as plumbism, and shall give this officer authority to visit the gunwharf shop, to draft men suffering from the incipient or later stages of the disease from this shop to healthier work in the dockyard, and generally to report on all such cases and on the cause of the disease and on the possible remedial measures?
§ Dr. MACNAMARAMedical officers are not appointed to dockyards unless they are thoroughly conversant with industrial diseases. Dockyard workmen whose business brings them into contact with lead are periodically examined by the dockyard medical officers for plumbism, etc., and, if considered necessary on medical grounds, they are placed on other work where there is no risk of contracting lead poisoning.
§ Mr. FALLEIs the hon. Gentleman satisfied with the state of affairs now existing in this wharf both as regards ventilation and the health of the men?
§ Dr. MACNAMARAI think the dockyard regulations are satisfactory. I shall be glad to send a copy to the hon. Gentleman.