Chronic pulmonary disease in South Wales coal mines: an eye-witness account of the MRC surveys (1937-1942).

Abstract

In the mid-1930s reports were accumulating from the British coalfields, particularly from the anthracite area of South Wales, that coal face workers suffered a disabling lung condition that was not recognized as the (compensatable) silicosis of rock workers. The Second World War was threatening and discontent was rife. Government, through the Medical Research Council, initiated a medical and environmental investigation of chronic pulmonary disease in South Wales coalminers to make a systematic survey. The medical surveys, 1936-1942, were undertaken by a member of MRC staff, Dr Philip D'Arcy Hart assisted by Dr Edward Aslett of the Welsh National Memorial Association. One colliery (Ammanford) was intensively investigated; fifteen others less so; coal trimmers at the docks were added. The main observations were to confirm and describe radiographically the frequency of serious lung lesions apparently due to coal dust, and distinguishable from classical silicosis. Among recommendations accepted by Government, the lung condition became recognized for compensations, and the generic term pneumoconiosis of Coal Workers' was substituted for silicosis.