§ Mr. Ness Edwardsasked the Minister of Fuel and Power if he has had examined the large number of cases of hernia occurring in the mining industry; to what extent the incidence of this type of disability could be reduced if a tub of lighter construction was introduced; and if he will take steps to have this matter investigated.
Major Lloyd GeorgeExact figures of the incidence of hernia in the mining industry at the present time are not available, but such information as I have does not give ground for thinking that the number of cases is abnormally large. The figures of applications by miners to leave the industry on medical grounds show that in only about 1 per cent. of the cases is hernia advanced as the cause of disability and the ground for the application. I am advised that the weight of tubs, which of course varies from mine to mine, is only one of several factors which may cause, or contribute towards, hernia, and many other considerations would have to be taken into account before tubs of lighter construction could be introduced. In so far as the man-handling of tubs is a con- 195W tributory cause of hernia, the remedy would appear rather to lie in effecting improvements in the haulage system which is one of the matters before the Technical Advisory Committee now sitting.