§ Mr. JOWETTasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he is aware that a woman named Louisa Briggs recently contracted anthrax at the works of Messrs. Campbell and Harrison, one of the branches of Woolcombers, Limited, and has since died of the disease; if the dangerous wools which Mrs. Briggs had been combing prior to her illness had undergone the same precautions for the removal of dust and blood stains as would have been obligatory if the material had been dealt with in a sorting room by wool-sorters; and, if not, will he explain why not?
§ The SECRETARY of STATE for the HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. McKenna)I have received a report on this case. It appears that all the dangerous wools in the combing of which the woman had been employed had in the processes of opening or sorting been treated over an exhaust for removal of dust and examined for blood stains. The wools had also subsequently been washed. The precaution of examining wool for blood stains is not obligatory under the regulations at present in any process, and in this and other respects the precautions taken went beyond what the regulations require.