§ 47. Mr. J. Griffithsasked the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, as representing the Lord President of the Council, whether he can give particulars of the respirator known as the Mark IV respirator which is recommended for use by coal miners; what tests have been carried out with this respirator under practical working conditions and at what collieries these tests were carried out; and whether the responsible authorities are satisfied that coal miners doing laborious work can use these respirators without any ill-effects upon their constitutions?
§ Earl WintertonIt is not possible to describe the Mark IV respirator, so as to distinguish it from other respirators, within the limits of a reply to a Parliamentary question. The respirator was evolved after exhaustive investigations and trials carried out under practical working conditions at factories and sandstone quarries as well as at six coal mines in Somerset, South Wales and Kent, by the Chemical Defence Research Department under arrangements made by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. The trials indicated that the respirator would be suitable for use by operatives in any of the industries covered by the trials. The respirator is of light weight and has an exceptionally low breathing resistance, and I am advised that it is therefore likely to be more 2039 suitable for use by coal miners or other workers engaged in laborious occupations than any previous design.
§ Mr. GriffithsMay I ask whether any of the six collieries in which these tests were conducted were in the anthracite coalfield, where more than 80 per cent. of the silicosis in this country exists; and if that is not the case, since these respirators have been recommended by people in authority and by a large number of doctors who have hitherto been adverse to the use of respirators by men engaged in heavy manual labour, he will see that tests are carried out in the mines?
§ Earl WintertonI should require to have notice of that question.