During 1990 all present and retired china clay workers in the United Kingdom were invited to take part in a chest health survey. A total of 4401 The relation between total exposure to china clay dust and x ray film category is such that a typical non-smoker worker employed in the most dusty of current occupations may expect to reach the lower limit of category 1 after about 42 years continuous employment in that job at current exposures. Both forced vital capacity (FVC) and forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV,) were found (as in other studies) to decline with age, more rapidly for smokers than non-smokers at the rates for FVC of 0 035 Vy and 0 033 Vy, whereas for FEV, the rates are 0*039 Vy for smokers and 0*034 IIy for non-smokers. Changes in x ray film category are also related to lung function, a change of one major category being equivalent to about six years of ageing in its effect on FEV,.

the patient sustained his injury by falling during an epileptic fit under his own cart, the wheel of which ran over his right shoulder and the lower part of his neck. The accompanying diagram of the brachial plexus will serve to recall the chief anatomical distribution of the plexus. It will be observed that in this case the nerve to C 5, C 6, C 7, C 8, Anterior branches of the four lower cervical nerves. D 1, Anterior branch of the first dorsal nerve. A, Supplying rhomboid. E, Supplying supra-and infraspinati. c, Supplying subclavian. D, Supplying pectoralis major. E, Supplying serratus magnus. F, Brancb. to pupil and orbit. G, Phrenic nerve. H, Supplying subscapularis. I, Circumflex. J, Musculo-spiral nerve. K, Musculocutaneous nerve. L, Median nerve. M, Ulnar nerve. N, Internal cutaneous nerve. o, Lesser internal cutaneous nerve.

No abstract

In 1985, employees in the china clay industry were offered chest x ray examinations and 4478 (52-6% of the total workforce) accepted. Of these, 4167 workers and pensioners of the largest single employer also completed occupational histories, respiratory symptom questionnaires, and underwent ventilatory capacity tests. The x ray readings (read to the 1980 ILO classification) of the 4167 workers and pensioners were analysed to seek relations between the indices ofpulmonary health and occupational exposure. The information available, particularly on occupational history, was more detailed than in previous studies of 1961, 1977, and 1981 In 1985 a chest x ray survey was carried out by the Nottingham based mobile unit of the National Coal Board using 40 x 40 cm films. It was offered to all people employed in the china clay industry in the south west of England. The subsequent analyses were based on a group of workers from the largest single employer, which represented 94% of the china clay industry for which full occupational details were available. For this group an overall response rate of 65% was achieved. For china clay employees in potentially dusty occupations (where measured respirable dust concentrations may exceed 0 5 mg/m3), however, the response rate was higher, at approximately 85%.

720large amount of antiseptic-namely, alcohol-which they contain, and the need for antiseptics, such as salicylic acid, is largely due to a commendable desire on the part of a large proportion of the public to have wholesome and agreeable beverages free from the risk of the moral and physical evils which too often attend the use of alcoholic drinks. °We desire to make it clear that we are not now discussing the recommendation of the Commission that the law should be altered so as to require manufacturers to state the nature and amount of the preservative, whatever it may be, which is present in certain articles sold. The practical point at issue between us and the Commission is that the latter, though allowing the use of salicylic acid, would limit it to one grain per pint, while we maintain that if a larger proportion is necessary for the manufacture and preservation of the article there is no valid reason why it should not be employed. It is scarcely necessary to insist on the fact that if a preservative is to be used some articles will require more of it than others and it by no means follows that the article most difficult to preserve is the least valuable and nutritious. Thus, to take an extreme case, let us suppose that there is a demand for a temperance beverage with a flavour of raspberries. Such a beverage can be produced in a variety of ways. It may be prepared by pressing out the juice of raspberries with such additions as are necessary to render it sufficiently fluid and agreeable to the taste, or it may be prepared without the help of any fresh fruit at all, using a chemical body, the so-called essence, to give the distinctive flavour. It is clear that the latter being free from nitrogenous matters will be much more easily preserved than the former, though the former would certainly be the more agreeable beverage and would approach much more nearly to the characters of natural fruit. We are convinced that one effect of the arbitrary limitation of the amount of preservative allowed will be to force manufacturers of the so-called non-alcoholic fruit wines and other temperance beverages to employ artificial flavouring bodies prepared in the laboratory instead of the natural juice of the fruit. One noted firm, harassed by successive prosecutions.has written to us as follows : I-We are now in the strange predicament of being compelled to discontinue the use of the nutrient article and use a substitute rather than that an antiseptic be used. But the game of fighting when, win or lose, one cannot recover expenses, is too one-sided to be interesting, especially as the other will pay us at least quite as well." We have also good authority for alleging that another result of these prosecutions is to set manufacturers to work to discover antiseptics which cannot be recognised by the analytical chemist and we are informed that such an antiseptic is already employed by one firm. It is surely in the interests of the public that an antiseptic should be employed the presence and amount of which can be determined...