Dutch Miners Research Articles

Het transnationale begin van de Nederlandse mijnwerkersvakbonden. Een voorbeeld van de nationalisering van arbeidersbewegingen (1907-1926)

The Transnational Origins of Dutch Miners’ Unionism. A Case-Study in the Nationalization of Labour Movements. Several authors have argued that from the late nineteenth century onwards labour markets became increasingly organized and regulated nationally, by national social security arrangements, collective agreements, systems of labour exchange and migration control. As a consequence, members of the working classes began to consider themselves, and to be considered, as national citizens, and labour movements became nationalized. The First World War marked a watershed in this process. In this article, I want to explore to what extent this development influenced attitudes of the two Dutch miners’ unions, of which the originally inter-confessional one would become the most prominent. Until the First World War labour markets in the Limburg coalmining district and in the adjacent German Aachen district were fully integrated, and so were the nascent miners’ unions. On the eve of the First World War the Dutch inter-confessional union even became a branch of the German Christliche Gewerkverein. This all changed after the War, until in 1922 all ties with the Germans were severed, and the soon to become officially Catholic union reoriented on the Dutch state and the Limburg region. This article describes the transnational origins of the miners’ unions against the background of the cross-border labour market in the borderlands, and the effects of the territorialisation of labour markets on the originally transnational orientation of the unions after the First World War.

Sustainable mineral development: possibilities and pitfalls illustrated by the rise and fall of Dutch mineral planning guidance

Abstract The Netherlands has major resources of sand, gravel and clay, exploited mainly for construction works and the building materials industry. As in most Western countries, mineral extraction meets with considerable societal resistance. To this end, Dutch minerals policy aims to prevent extraction by promoting economical use of materials, and the use of alternative (secondary or renewable) materials. Until recently, it also included a system of production planning to sustain supplies of regionally scarce materials. Dutch policy development is reviewed and discussed in terms of pitfalls and possibilities for mineral planning in general. Promoting secondary substitution has been quite successful, and presents an example. In contrast, the production planning system has been controversial from the start and ineffective as a result, mainly because it attempted to solve supply problems without properly addressing the underlying resistance. For this reason the system is in the process of being abandoned.

Economic and environmental effects of the manure policy in The Netherlands: synthesis of integrated ex-post and ex-ante evaluation

This paper summarises the results of both an ex-post evaluation of the Dutch Mineral Accounting System (MINAS) and an ex-ante evaluation of the effect of different levy-free surplus values. The MINAS system has been introduced in 1998 in order to reduce nitrate and phosphate leaching from agricultural soils. MINAS resulted in a reduction of the N surplus on dairy farms of approximately 50 kg ha(-1) to limited or no costs to the farms involved. MINAS resulted in higher costs for manure removal for intensive livestock farmers. Though emissions of N and P have decreased significantly during the last five years effects of this reduction in environmental quality cannot be observed, except for a small decrease in nitrate concentration of the upper groundwater. The ex-ante evaluation of different variants for possible future levy-free surplus levels indicated that under the lowest variant, the nitrate concentration in groundwater will exceed 50 mg per litre on 14% of the area. The environmental effect of the different variants for P were not distinguished. The lowering of the levy-free surplus for P will have a drastic effect on the intensive livestock farms. The incorporation of fertiliser P under the MINAS system would be a cheap option to reduce the P surplus.

Classification of mineral water types and comparison with drinking water standards

In a study of 291 mineral waters from 41 different countries, 9–20% exceeded the Dutch drinking water standards for chloride, calcium, magnesium, potassium, sodium, sulphate, and fluorine. The mineral water quality cannot be qualified as bad because the standards for these compounds (with the exception of fluorine) are not based on health issues, but matters regarding undesirable taste and possible adverse effects on the water supply system. For the mineral water data set, the amount of dissolved compounds, hardness, and chloride content appear to be the most distinctive criteria. A mineral water type classification based on these criteria will offer consumers a tool for assessing mineral water on the basis of the chemical composition data on the bottle label. In terms of the criteria mentioned, average Dutch tap water strongly resembles the Belgian and Dutch mineral waters. This similarity does not extend to the price, since Dutch tap water is about 500 times cheaper.

The Dutch Mineral Accounting System and the European Nitrate Directive: implications for N and P management and farm performance

Agricultural nutrients can be a significant source of groundwater pollution. This paper studies the possible effects on farm management of a newly introduced policy instrument to control nitrogen and phosphorus pollution of groundwater bodies in The Netherlands. Ecological, technical, political, as well as financial issues, associated with the agricultural nutrient pollution problem, are considered. In response to the concern of the European Community (EC) for pollution of groundwater, The Netherlands implemented the Mineral Accounting System (MINAS), which focusses on nutrient (nitrogen and phosphorus flows) on individual farms, and taxes farms whose nutrient surplus exceeds a defined limit. To investigate the implications of MINAS for individual farm performance, financial and nutrient bookkeeping data of 194 farms, distributed over five farm types, were collected from 1997 through 1999. This paper shows that nutrient management performance of farmers varied largely between and within farm types, not only in absolute figures but also in terms of nutrient efficiency. The study also indicated that levies or taxes for excess nutrient surpluses could be high, ranging from ▪179 ha −1 for arable farmers to ▪404 ha −1 for mixed dairy and intensive livestock producers. These levies would reduce gross margin (GM) by 8% on average and can threaten continuity on an individual farm level. Therefore, current performance has to change considerably for farmers to be able to make the final surplus standards in 2003. Furthermore, as a consequence of objections of the EC to the Dutch policy, application standards for manure were introduced. This study showed that this does not prove to guarantee safe nutrient management as well as MINAS does, but will impact financial performance more, due to higher manure disposal costs.

Environmental impact of heifer management decisions on Dutch dairy farms

Dairy farming contributes substantially to Dutch environmental problems. A dynamic heifer rearing model was used to determine the extent to which the rearing activity influences nutrient flows on a dairy farm. Based on current rearing conditions, the economic optimal rearing policy resulted in an average accounting nutrient surplus of 51.4 kg of nitrogen and 17.0 kg of phosphate per heifer per year. To study the sensitivity of the optimal rearing policy to environmental measures as the Dutch mineral accounting system (MINAS), the model was extended with the mineral accounting relationships and a 'least mineral' ration formulator. Optimal rearing policy, in terms of growth rate and breeding decisions, was only slightly influenced by these measures. The effects on ration composition and nutrient surpluses were considerable.

Methane oxidation in soil profiles of Dutch and Finnish coniferous forests with different soil texture and atmospheric nitrogen deposition

We studied methane oxidation capacity in soil profiles of Dutch and Finnish coniferous forests. The Finnish sites ( n = 9) had nitrogen depositions from 3 to 36 kg N ha −1 a −1. The deposition of N on the Dutch sites ( n = 13) was higher ranging from 50 to 92 kg N ha −1 a −1. The Dutch sites had also limed counterparts. Methane oxidation rates were determined by incubating soil samples in the laboratory at + 15°C with 10 μl CH 4 l −1 (10 ppmv CH 4). In general, CH 4 oxidation rates were highest in the uppermost mineral layers. The average CH 4 oxidation rate in the Finnish mineral soils was three times higher than that in the Dutch soils. The litter layers did not oxidize CH 4. In the Netherlands all organic horizons had a negligible capacity to oxidize CH 4. However, some Finnish organic horizons showed high CH 4 oxidation capacity. In the Netherlands, in contrast to Finland, there were some soil profiles lacking CH 4 oxidation. Higher contents of nitrate and ammonium, as well as greater production of nitrous oxide (N 2O) and lower production of carbon dioxide in the Dutch than in the Finnish forest soils reflected the high N deposition rate in the Netherlands. Not only the N deposition, but also the highly sorted soil texture (fine sand) with low amounts of both coarse and fine particles is an important reason for the low CH 4 oxidation in the Dutch soils. The proportions of fine and coarse particles, both well represented in moraine soils typical in northern Europe, correlated positively with the CH 4 oxidation. Fine particles provide a good surface for microbial growth. Coarse particles, on the other hand, enhance diffusion of CH 4 and oxygen into the soil. Methane oxidation in the Dutch mineral soils was slightly enhanced by liming.

Long‐term mortality in miners with coal workers' pneumoconiosis in the netherlands: A pilot study

In order to investigate whether the prolonged exposure to coal mine dust increases the cancer risk for coal miners, a pilot study in a selected cohort of 334 Dutch miners with coal workers' pneumoconiosis (CWP), followed from 1956 until 1983, was conducted. In total, 165 miners had died (49.4%); for 162 (98.2%) the cause of death was traced. In comparison to the general Dutch male population, total mortality in the cohort was statistically significantly increased (SMR: 153). This was in general due to the significantly higher than expected cancer mortality (SMR: 163), cancer of stomach and small intestine (SMR: 401) and nonmalignant respiratory disease (SMR: 426). The lung cancer mortality was within the expected range.

Lung cancer among Dutch coal miners: a case-control study.

A case-control study was conducted in the southern part of The Netherlands to investigate the risk of lung cancer in coal miners; 381 age-matched pairs of primary lung cancer cases and controls, diagnosed between 1972 and 1988, were selected from the pathology department of the University Hospital in the region. Information about past employment in coal mines was obtained through the registers of the collaborative pension fund for Dutch miners. 20% of the cases were (at some time) employed in coal mining, compared with 21% of the controls (odds ratio 0.95; 95% confidence interval: 0.65-1.38). 9% of both cases and controls had an underground work history (odds ratio 0.96; 95% confidence interval: 0.56-1.65). The duration of underground coal mining did not differ substantially between cases and referents (average duration: respectively 117 and 108 months). No relation between specific histologic tumor cell types and coal mining could be demonstrated. The study gives no indication that workers in Dutch coal mines have an increased risk of developing lung malignancies.

Tuberculin sensitivity in coal miners with pneumoconiosis

Summary To obtain information about the tuberculin sensitivity in miners and in order to find outwhether progressive massive fibrosis (P.M.F.) may be caused by a tuberculous infection, the tuberculin sensitivity in Dutch miners was studied by means of the Mantoux-test. The preliminary results show a well-marked correlation between tuberculin sensitivityand age, but no correlation with category of pneumoconiosis. There did not appear to be any difference in sensitivity between miners having P.M.F.and men of the same age who had never worked underground.