Oil on the water: Government regulation of a carcinogen in the twentieth-century Lancashire cotton spinning industry

Abstract

In the Lancashire cotton textile industry, mule spinners were prone to a chronic and sometimes fatal skin cancer (often affecting the groin). The disease had reached epidemic proportions by the 1920s, which necessitated action by the government, employers, and trade unions. In contrast to previous accounts, this article focuses on the government's reaction to mule spinners' cancer. Using official records in the National Archives, the slow introduction of health and safety measures by the government is explored in detail. Although obstructionism by the employers played a key role, one of the reasons for government inaction was the ambiguity of scientific research on engineering oils. On the other hand, prolonged scientific research suited a government policy that was framed around self regulation - a policy that had proved largely ineffective by the 1950s.

Compensating the passengers. A comparison of the management of three London underground crashes 1909–1975

“…Thirdly, while recent studies (Higgins & Tweedale, 2010;Tweedale & Jeremy, 2006) have focused on the role of the state in enacting and enforcing legislation which, effectively or otherwise, compelled industries to pay compensation, this article examines what organisations were willing to do voluntarily. Railway companies fought hard to preserve this tradition of volunteerism with respect to the health and safety of their workers (Esbester, 2005), though the socialisation of risk associated with the creation of state insurance schemes for workers steadily undermined this approach from the early 20 th century onwards (Crook & Esbester, 2016).…”

Review of periodical literature published in 2010

“…Doyle explores pollution in Middlesbrough between 1880 and 1940, the ways in which the changing economic fortunes of the area impacted on the levels of smoke and quality of the water supply, and the pragmatic uses of emerging scientific knowledge by members of the local community. Themes around the contestation of new technologies, and their application in diagnoses of occupational health hazards, form the basis of Melling's study of x‐rays and their application in the diagnosis of silicosis, while Higgins and Tweedale point to how research into carcinogens in the cotton spinning industry held up changes in occupational health policy in this area. Luckin's study of anti‐drink driving campaigns in interwar Britain points to the inability of a scientific pressure group to persuade the government to tighten the law.…”