HC Deb 12 June 1956 vol 554 cc15-6W
Mr. Swingler

asked the Minister of Labour the numbers of categories of pottery workers who are subject under his regulations to periodic medical examinations.

Mr. Carr

The Pottery (Health and Welfare) Special Regulations, 1950, require the monthly examination of all workers in the following processes:

  1. (i) The making or mixing of frits or glazes containing lead or of colours.
  2. (ii) The preparation or weighing out of flow material.
  3. (iii) Colour blowing, or the wiping off of colour after that process.
  4. (iv) Ground laying or colour dusting, or the wiping off of colour after either of those processes.
  5. (v) Colour grinding.
  6. (vi) Lithographic transfer making.
  7. (vii) Any other process in which any material, other than glaze, which contains more than five per cent. of its dry weight of soluble lead compound is used or handled in a dry state or in the form of spray or in suspension in liquid other than oil or similar medium.

Exact figures of workers in these processes are not available, 13,683 such workers (8,026 men and 5,657 women), were examined in 1955. Young persons under 18 are prohibited by the Regulations from being employed in the processes named.

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