Pulmonary tuberculosis mortality in the printing and shoemaking trades historical survey, 1881-1931.

Attention was drawn by Colfis (1925) to the fact that, in the Registrar-General's occupational mortality returns for 1911, printers and shoemakers "present the unusual picture of a low general mortality combined with a high phthisis mortality ". Comparison with other trades failed to reveal evidence of predisposing causes such as silicosis, alcoholism, or poverty, but in both occupations the men " worked indoors under circumstances in which individuals are so congregated together as to facilitate the passage of infection from person to person ". Collis suggested, therefore, that the high tuberculosis death rate might be due to crossinfection at work. The present investigation is based on a study of serial records of mortality (Registrar-General's Decennial Supplements, 1881-1931) and a comparison between these and contemporary working and living conditions. Its purpose is to discover whether printers and shoemakers have always had high tuberculosis death rates and whether cross-infection of fellow-workers has influenced their mortality.