§ 38. Mr. HANNONasked the Home Secretary if he will state, in connection with and in view of the wide scope of the Various Industries (Silicosis) Scheme, 1928, the precise industries, other than the manufacture of pottery and scouring powders and the processes in these industries, in which he has had definite evidence of silicosis, disabling silicosis, or death from silicosis, or of any of these accompanied by tuberculosis, and their number?
§ Mr. CLYNESAs the answer to this question is a long one, I propose to circulate it with the OFFICIAL REPORT.
§ Mr. HANNONWill the right hon. Gentleman take precautions that this Order shall not apply to any industry in this country, embarrassing the process of manufacture, unless he has the clearest evidence of the existence of the disease?
§ Mr. CLYNESThe greatest care is taken already in the application of the Order. Should any further steps be necessary, perhaps the hon. Member will put down a question after he has read the full answer.
§ Mr. STEPHENWill the right hon. Gentleman see that the interests of the workers are the first consideration?
§ Mr. CLYNESThat is my first consideration.
§ Following is the answer:
§ The following are the particulars (so far as it has been possible to trace them at short notice) of ascertained cases of silicosis which have come during the last three or four years to the knowledge of the Factory Department or the Mines Department in the particular industries or processes covered by the Various Industries Scheme, excluding the potteries and the manufacture of scouring powders:—
§ One case in each of the following industries or processes—sandgrinding (iron foundry); silica milling (silica flour 2201 manufacture); stone crushing (road making); tin mining; and lead mining. Two cases in millstone dressing (corn millin). Four cases in sandblasting (metal works). Ten cases in stonemasons' work; and 25 cases in coal mining.
§ There cases are mostly fatal cases where the cause of death was ascertained through a port-mortem examination ordered by the Coroner, and they must not be taken as affording any criterion to the incidence of the disease in the industries or processes concerned or as representing the whole or even the main part of the experience on which this Scheme is founded. It must be borne in mind that the disease is not notifiable as other industrial diseases are and that, as pointed out in the recent Report of the Committee on the Medical Arrangements for the diagnosis of silicosis, the diagnosis of this disease involves expert examination which has not been generally available. As a consequence, except in those industries under the Refractories Industries Scheme in which special arrangements for expert examination have been instituted, the disease has not been diagnosed as such but has been set down as some other form of disease of the respiratory system. The disease has, however, been the subject of extensive medical research for a number of years and much experience has also been gained through the periodic examinations carried out under the Refractories Industries Scheme, and I am advised that the result has been to show conclusively that wherever workmen are subject to certain conditions of exposure to silica dust, they incur a substantial risk of the disease and, in fact, wherever any special enquiry has been held into any process giving rise to such conditions, silicosis has been found to be present to a serious extent. For instance, the inquiry into the Sandstone Industry in 1928 showed that out of 454 workmen examined, 112 were found to have contracted silocosis. The hon. Member will understand therefore that in selecting the industries and processes for inclusion in the Various Industries Scheme, regard was necessarily had not only to the ascertained cases of silicosis but also to the degree to which the workers would in fact be liable to be exposed to silica dust in the particular circumstances of their employment.