§ Mr. Walkerasked the Home Secretary whether his attention has been called to the remarks of the coroner at an inquest held at Port Talbot, on the 17th instant, into the death of a gas-producer man employed at the Port Talbot Steel Works, to the effect that the circumstances surrounding the employment of gas-producer men should be brought to the notice of the Home Office, as there was sufficient evidence to justify the conclusion that death was due to gas poisoning arising out of 1549W the atmospheric conditions under which the man was employed; and whether he will institute an inquiry into the conditions of employment of gas-producer [...] in the steel trade, with a view to bringing this class of employment within the jurisdiction of the industrial diseases schedule of the Workmen's Compensation Act?
§ Mr. LloydI have seen Press reports of the inquest in this case, but they contain no statement attributed to the coroner that there was sufficient evidence to justify the conclusion that death was due to gas poisoning arising out of the atmospheric conditions under which the man was employed. The verdict was heart failure, due to flabby heart, accelerated by acute bronchitis and emphysema.
As regards the last part of the question, I understand that gassing by carbon monoxide is already compensated as an accident and on this and other grounds the Departmental Committee on Compensation for Industrial Diseases, which specially investigated the question of scheduling carbon monoxide poisoning in 1933, did not feel justified in recommending that it should be scheduled.