Chapter XXXVII: Mining (2)

It will be seen presently that these figures are ludicrously disproportionate to the real casualties, and although it is difficult to get accurate data about these, an approximation, at any rate, to the true facts can be obtained.

Valuable information is afforded by the various Miners’ Permanent Relief Funds, and by the Central Association for dealing with distress caused by mining accidents. The latter Association publishes statistics, from which the following table has been compiled, this representing the summary of the returns from the nine English societies (there are no Scotch or Irish ones) which together compose the Association[124]:--

+------+---------+------------------------------+
| | | No. per 1000 Members. |
| | No. of +---------------+--------------+
| Year.| Members.| Of Deaths by |Of Disablement|
| | |Fatal Accident.| Cases. |
+------+---------+---------------+--------------+
| 1889 | 238,892 | 2.12 | 188.3 |
| 1890 | 268,985 | 2.66 | 157.2 |
| 1891 | 287,690 | 1.88 | 149.8 |
| 1892 | 295,676 | 2.17 | 139.8 |
| 1893 | 299,027 | 1.59 | 144.8 |
| 1894 | 313,438 | 2.50 | 159.4 |
| 1895 | 317,004 | 1.99 | 166.8 |
| 1896 | 325,708 | 1.90 | 177.6 |
| 1897 | 334,428 | 1.76 | 192.6 |
| 1898 | 271,536 | 1.81 | 196.3 |
| 1899 | 279,842 | 1.67 | 176.6 |
+------+---------+---------------+--------------+

The accident death-rate reported by the Association is rather higher than is shown in the Inspectors’ Official Reports, because in the latter only deaths that occur within a year and a day of the accident are included, whereas in the tables compiled by the Association all deaths that can be referred to mining accidents are given, however long the interval may be between the accident and the death of the injured person.

The disablement cases in the above table comprise all injuries received by any member of the Association that are sufficiently serious to keep the victim off work for at least a week. They are _more than twenty times_ as numerous as those included in the Inspectors of Mines’ Reports, and this may be accepted as conclusive evidence that these reports do not record by any means all cases of “serious personal injury.” It is true that the two sets of statistics are not in all respects strictly comparable; the Inspectors of Mines take no account of an accident unless it happens within the precincts of the mine as legally defined, while the Associations’ regulations extend to accidents that may happen to miners going to or returning from their work. There is also a suspicion that occasional cases of disability to work are returned as due to accident, when they are really not so caused, and escape the vigilance of the various societies’ officials. Making all allowances, however, for these and similar defects, the above figures may be looked upon as reasonably accurate, and as fairly representing the risk of minor accidents to which the coal miner is exposed in this country; it may be added that the figures for each individual society do not vary very greatly from the general average, as shown by the Association. It is difficult to see why they should be about twice as high as the corresponding accidents in Germany, for although there may be some laxity in admitting supposed accidents, this circumstance cannot possibly account for one-half of the cases. It would be a decided advantage if Inspectors of Mines had power to record and report all cases of “smart money” and of compensation respectively paid by the collieries in their districts, as fairly accurate statistics of minor accidents could be obtained in this simple manner. It would also be more satisfactory if all accidents were subject to the examination of special medical officers appointed solely for this purpose. In this way the suspicion would be avoided that a medical practitioner may at times take too lenient a view of a doubtful case, biassed perhaps by the fact that his livelihood may depend largely upon the goodwill of the miners, who often form the bulk of his patients.

By far the most important of the individual societies that make up the Central Association is the Northumberland and Durham Miners’ Permanent Relief Fund; from the annual reports of this society useful information may be gathered, some of which is summarised in the following table:--

+------+---------+-------------------------------------+
| | | No. per 1000 Members. |
| Year.| No. of +-------+--------------+--------------+
| | Members.| Of |Of Permanently|Of Temporarily|
| | |Killed.| Disabled. | Disabled. |
+------+---------+-------+--------------+--------------+
| 1896 | 122,257 | 1.33 | 1.96 | 156.6 |
| 1897 | 124,920 | 1.60 | 1.94 | 156.8 |
| 1898 | 127,564 | 1.24 | 1.96 | 152.1 |
| 1899 | 130,552 | 1.50 | 2.00 | 148.4 |
+------+---------+-------+--------------+--------------+

According to the rules of the society an injured man whose injuries prevent him from working for a week is considered as “temporarily disabled,” and he continues in this category until he is fit to return to work, unless he is so badly hurt as to be unable to work for six months, when he is classed as “permanently disabled”; such a man may either recover sufficiently to be able to work again, or he may die, or he may remain disabled for life. The duration of permanent disablement as above defined has of course risen gradually from the commencement of the fund, until it amounted to 5.17 years in the quinquennial period 1887–91, its average duration from the formation of the fund having been 4.42 years.[125]

The duration of temporary disablement was about:--

3.5 weeks in the year 1896
3.6 „ „ 1897
3.55 „ „ 1898
3.55 „ „ 1899

In the Liverpool district, the ratio of permanent disablement is found to be 4.5 per 1000 members, and of temporary disablement 180 per 1000 members; the duration of the former cases averages 3½ years, and that of the latter 4.3 weeks.

Annual reports are also issued by the Prussian Official Miners’ Relief Fund; the report for 1898 gives the accident death-rate of the members of the Association as 2.69 per 1000 members, the death-rate from all other causes being 5.39, making a total death-rate of 7.58 per 1000. It is worth noting that the average age at which members are totally incapacitated from working is 49.2 years, whilst the average age at which members are partially incapacitated is about forty-five years; this includes disablement due to old age as well as to accident.

Coming lastly to the subject of the diseases of miners, it may first of all be stated that mining is a distinctly healthy occupation. The mortality of all males[126] in Great Britain during the years 1890–92 was 18.74 per 1000, out of which 0.87 deaths were due to accident, leaving 17.87 per 1000 due to what may be termed natural causes. On the other hand the mortality among coal miners from all causes for the same period was 12.33, that due to accident being given as 2.00,[127] making the death-rate due to natural causes only 10.35 per 1000. Of course it must not be forgotten that the working miner’s career covers just that period of life at which the natural death-rate is lowest. There are no doubt several circumstances that contribute to the general healthiness of the miner’s occupation; in the first place, mining is hard work, and men whose constitution is not tolerably sound, and whose physique is not fully up to the average, will either select some less arduous occupation at the outset, or will find themselves, if they began life as miners, unable to continue at the work. On the other hand, the work, though arduous, requires steady though only moderate exertion, and does not expose the worker to the abnormally violent strains, exerted through brief periods, that characterise some other occupations. Again, the hygienic conditions are, as far as the coal mine at least is concerned, far more favourable than in most other occupations. The miner works in a good atmosphere, ample ventilation being a prime necessity for ensuring the safety of the coal miner, in an equable temperature, free from the extremes alike of heat and cold, he is not exposed to the inclemencies of the weather, and his working place is usually dry. The same cannot always be said of the miner in metalliferous mines, where the conditions of work are far less favourable in every respect, and his mortality is therefore higher. It may be added that the coal miner, if even moderately industrious, can always earn a wage ample to keep him in fair comfort, and to supply him fully with all the necessaries of life. Probably the most unhealthy part of the coal miner’s work consists in “kirving” or undercutting the coal, in doing which the miner has to lie on his side on the floor of the coal seam, swinging his pick with a peculiar sideways stroke over his head, till he has cut out a narrow groove some 3 feet deep below the over-hanging mass of coal. Work in this constrained position is necessarily harmful to some extent; its effect has been most noticed as affecting the nervous system, and especially the nerves of the eyes, the disease known as miner’s nystagmus having been often ascribed to it. Cases of miner’s nystagmus occur, however, also among miners who do not have to kirve, and it may well be due in great part to the poor light obtainable in so many cases underground, especially when safety lamps are used, and the consequent strain on the eyes; at any rate this seems to be the opinion of several who have suffered from this complaint. The coal miner working in this position is also bound to inhale a considerable amount of fine coal-dust, which has an irritating effect upon the lungs; thus it appears from the tables already referred to that the percentages of deaths of coal miners due to the respective causes indicated were as follows:--

Causes of Death. Percentage of
Total Number of Deaths.
Accident 16.2
Phthisis 10.7
Bronchitis 12.4
Pneumonia 10.9

The most obvious remedy for reducing the proportion of diseases due to the above causes is the one already referred to, namely, the general use of mechanical coal-cutters, and the replacement of hand kirving by machine kirving. Another cause besides coal-dust that is probably answerable for a considerable proportion of diseases of the lungs is the universal custom among coal miners in this country of walking home in their damp and dirty pit clothing, instead of changing into warm, dry clothes at the mine. Colliery owners have tried the experiment of providing changing houses and baths for the men at the pit’s mouth, but have always found that the men declined to avail themselves of these conveniences.

It has been pointed out that the metal miner’s work is far more unhealthy than that of the collier. This is well seen in the death-rate among Cornish tin miners, the typical metal miners of Great Britain. Here we find that the death-rate, instead of being below the average of the country, is higher, namely 19.66 per 1000 from all causes, that from accident being given as 1.14, leaving 18.52 per 1000 as the death-rate from disease. Consumption is extremely fatal amongst tin miners, bronchitis also claiming many victims. The following table shows the percentage of the total number of deaths for the period 1890–92, due to the causes specified:--

Cause of Death. Percentage of the
Total Number of Deaths.
Accident 5.8
Phthisis 29.9
Bronchitis 13.5
Pneumonia 5.4
Other diseases of respiratory system 7.1

It is worth noting that according to Dr Ogle’s figures the percentage of deaths in the period 1880–83 amongst Cornish miners (which may be taken as practically equivalent to the tin miners quoted above) due to phthisis was 37.5, and to other diseases of the respiratory organs, 24.9, the death-rate from all causes being rather more than double that of the average of all males. It is probable that a good deal of the improvement that appears to have taken place in those ten years is due to the increasing replacement of ladders by cages for getting the men to and from their work; there seems little doubt that the fatigue of having to climb up a good many hundred feet of steep ladders at the end of a hard day’s work is a prolific cause of chest complaints and of heart disease. At most Cornish mines of any importance a “dry” is provided, _i.e._, a room or building in which the miners change their wet and dirty mine clothes, and leave them to be properly dried for the day following. As in coal mines, so in metal mines, the dust produced by the miner’s work is apt to injure the men’s lungs. In metal-mining this dust is chiefly produced by the action of drilling. When a drill hole inclines well below the horizontal, water can and always should be poured in, to convert the dust produced into mud, and thus to prevent it from flying about. When a hole “looks upwards” or is pointed above the horizontal, water cannot be poured in, but may be splashed in from time to time; this, however, involves a certain amount of trouble, and is rarely done, although it ought to be. It is especially important in the case of machine drills, which work very much faster and cause much more dust than hand drilling. The compressed air by which these drills are usually actuated can easily be employed to force a small jet of water into the drill hole; this is done by some machines, and is to be highly recommended. Some Continental makers have extended this idea, and use drills pierced longitudinally with a small hole, through which water is injected; this plan seems to be very effective in preventing dust, but may be found open to some other objections in practice.

The fumes produced by blasting, especially when nitro-glycerine explosives are used, are said to be occasionally injurious to health. There is no doubt that the explosion of ordinary black blasting-powder produces a considerable amount of carbonic oxide, and this poisonous gas is also produced, though apparently in less quantity, by most of the so-called safety explosives used in coal-mining. There is, however, never or rarely any good reason why a miner should be exposed to these fumes, which can be cleared away rapidly, provided that the mine is properly ventilated. It has been remarked that in most cases where such ill effects have been complained of, the fault has lain with the men themselves.

It is very exceptional that mining operations, properly so called, necessitate working in air under pressure, though this may occur in some special methods of shaft-sinking or of driving levels through wet ground; it is well known that men working under these conditions are liable to suffer from caisson disease. None but sound, healthy men, not too old, should be employed on such work; they should work short shifts, remain a sufficient time in the intermediate air-lock, and it is advisable that they should be under medical observation or periodic examination as long as the work lasts. In Westphalia the law forbids men working for more than six hours in any place underground the temperature of which exceeds 29° C. (84° F.).

Of special diseases that particularly affect miners, there can hardly be said to be any. On the Continent, particularly in Belgium,[128] and more recently in Australia, especially in North Queensland, a good deal of alarm has been caused by the prevalence of a serious disease due to an intestinal parasite known as Anchylostomum Duodenale. This disease, once introduced, spreads with alarming rapidity; thus in one Hungarian pit, 80 per cent. of the workers were found to be affected, and in pits in the province of Liège from 50 to 69 per cent. were attacked; in Westphalia, in 1897, there were 275 cases of the disease amongst 56,370 miners. The principal, if not the only remedy for this very serious, and often fatal disease, consists in the strictest personal cleanliness on the part of the miners themselves, whilst the management should take care to provide portable sanitary appliances, properly disinfected, at suitable places underground, and an ample supply of clean water for washing purposes. This has been made compulsory by recent legislation for the Westphalian coal mines. At German collieries bathing facilities are always provided, but the same Act now compels the use of separate shower baths in the place of the general plunge bath, the latter having been found to be a means of propagating not only anchylostomiasis, but other contagious diseases, such as trachoma (contagious disease of the eyes), typhus, etc.

There are a few special diseases due to special cases of mining poisonous minerals, which only just need passing mention. It may be said that the only poisonous minerals mined are the ores of copper, arsenic, lead, and mercury. The mining of copper never seems to have given rise to any trouble, and it is even disputed by some authorities, whether copper, taken into the system in small quantities, acts as a poison.[129] Arsenic is usually mined in the form of arsenical pyrites, and does not seem in this shape to have any injurious effects. It is said that dust from the mineral smaltite (an arsenide of cobalt, containing no sulphur when pure), when drawn into the lungs produces cancer of the lungs,[130] and that this disease is not uncommon amongst the miners in the Schneeberg district of Saxony, where the above mineral occurs.

In ordinary lead mines, lead poisoning or plumbism is almost unknown; in the mortality tables already quoted, only one case of death is referred to plumbism among 16,827 miners. This is apparently due mainly to the fact that in all British lead mines the supply of oxidised lead ores is practically exhausted, and work is confined to the sulphuretted ores. Galena, the sulphide of lead, is a heavy and difficultly soluble substance, and it would seem that lead is not readily absorbed from it into the system. The case is far different when the softer oxidised ores of lead, such as the carbonates, are worked, and these have been a source of serious trouble at the mines of the Broken Hill district, New South Wales. It was found that men could not safely be kept at work in those parts of the mine which produced the earthy lead carbonates for more than a fortnight at a time.[131]

Mercurial poisoning is no doubt the most serious of all these special forms of mining disease, due to the fact that all ores of mercury carry more or less mercury in the metallic state, as also to the readiness with which metallic mercury volatilises even at ordinary temperatures. At the Almaden mines in Spain, and the Idria mines in Carniola, a good deal of mercurial poisoning is found to occur; the chief remedy adopted seems to be the working of short shifts, so as to expose the men for as short a time as possible to the dangerous fumes. At the New Almaden mines in California statistics have shown that there were amongst the miners 10.44 per cent. of cases of mercurialism (salivation) in one year (1890).[132] The following remarks on this subject in the report are worth quoting:--

“The miners employed in the extraction of ore work by contract as a rule, and a certain number of careless men, through their own negligence, become victims to mercurial salivation. Men engaged in ore chambers, where native mercury is found, are requested not to eat, drink, or smoke, without first cleaning the face and hands, and using a solution of potassium chlorate as a mouth wash. Working stripped to the waist is discouraged.

“As the greatest attention is paid toward the attainment of perfect ventilation, which is of prime importance in the prevention of mercurial sickness, it is the physician’s belief that if the miners were more thorough in the use of the above precautions, the salivation rate at the mine would be under 1 per cent., whereas it is now over 10 per cent. It is probable that there will always be a slight amount of mercurial sickness, owing, very likely, to the suspension in the moist atmosphere of the mine of a small amount of the chlorides, and possibly other salts of mercury.”

This last example, therefore, serves to repeat and enforce the lesson that seems to be taught by every portion of this investigation, namely, that although mining is from the very nature of the occupation accompanied by certain risks, and although enlightened legislation and careful and scientific management can do much towards diminishing these risks, the main prophylactic must always lie in the thoughtfulness and intelligence of the miners themselves, and that the best thing that can be done towards increasing the safety of mining operations is to raise by all possible means the intellectual status of mining communities.

HENRY LOUIS.