Heavy Industry Workers Research Articles

Early Markers of Nephrotoxicity in Patients With Metal-on-metal Hip Arthroplasty

Metal ions released from arthroplasty devices are largely cleared in urine, leading to high exposure in renal tissues. Validated early markers of renal damage are routinely used to monitor workers in heavy metal industries, and renal risk can be quantified in these industries. It is unclear if the ion levels in patients with metal-on-metal hips are sufficient to cause renal damage. Does metal-on-metal (MOM) bearing use over a 10-year period lead to elevation of early renal markers compared with the levels expected in subjects with no metal exposure? We retrospectively reviewed 31 patients who underwent MOM hip resurfacings 10 years earlier. Whole blood specimens were collected for metal ion analysis, serum for creatinine estimation, and urine for timed metal ion output and renal markers. The renal marker levels of 30 age- and gender-matched subjects with no metal exposure and no known renal problems or diabetes mellitus were used as controls for renal markers. Median serum creatinine level in the MOM group was 1.1 mg/dL (interquartile range, 1.0-1.2 mg/dL) and median creatinine clearance was 79.2 mL/min. In this cohort, the number of patients with markers of renal damage above the reference range was comparable to the controls. None of the renal markers were associated with metal levels. The absence of elevation of renal markers in this cohort 10 years after MOM bearing implantation is reassuring. However, we believe surveillance through further longer-term, large-scale controlled trials are needed to monitor this arthroplasty-induced low-intensity (but long-term) trace element exposure to rule out potential nephrotoxicity.

Using Observation and Self-report to Predict Mean, 90th Percentile, and Cumulative Low Back Muscle Activity in Heavy Industry Workers

Occupational injury research depends on the ability to accurately assess workplace exposures for large numbers of workers. This study used mixed modeling to identify observed and self-reported predictors of mean, 90th percentile, and cumulative low back muscle activity to help researchers efficiently assess physical exposures in epidemiological studies. Full-shift low back electromyography (EMG) was measured for 133 worker-days in heavy industry. Additionally, full-shift, 1-min interval work-sampling observations and post-shift interviews assessed exposure to work tasks, trunk postures, and manual materials handling. Data were also collected on demographic and job variables. Regression models using observed variables predicted 31-47% of the variability in the EMG activity measures, while self-reported variables predicted 21-36%. Observation-based models performed better than self-report-based models and may provide an alternative to direct measurement of back injury risk factors.

Tolerated but Never Accepted: Polish American Officials of Michigan and Polonia in a World Political Perspective by Don Binkowski

110 MichiganHistoricalReview should make this book an appealing source for students, particularly history majors, who want to learn about themethods used by historians. The third section covers the accounts of neighbors in the Litde Pigeon Creek community. Bartelt's narrative and his discussion of the geographical and demographic make-up of that community illustrate the problems involved in using memory as an exclusive source of evidence. Bartelt describes the task of portraying a rural community as well as the difficulties involved in assessing the characteristics of friendship among youths in a highly mobile society. This is a useful methodological discussion if one is attempting to construct a reliable narrative of Lincoln's youth. The final chapter explains the efforts of later collectors of Lincoln stories and traditions, beginning with the work of Jesse W. Weik and includingWilliam Fortune, Anna O'Flynn, and J.Edward Murr. Bartelt uses these sources to complete the story of Lincoln's boyhood with the most reliable of the accounts from this era of memories and customs. Bartelt's mastery of these sources, traditions, and indispensible methods of oral history enlightens readers. This study of Lincoln's Indiana youth is a highly readable and significant book. Edward V. Carroll Heardand Community College Don Binkowski. Tolerated butNever Accepted: Polish American Officials of Michigan and Polonia in a World Political Perspective.Philadelphia: XLibris, 2008. Pp. 793. Appendices. Notes. Photographs. Cloth, $23.99. Polish Americans are one of themost significant ethnic groups in the history of Michigan. They were critical to the economic and physical expansion of the greater Detroit area during the early twentieth century, making up one-third or more of all workers in heavy industry. In the automobile factories, Poles were so predominant that inmany plants a kind of pidgin Polish became the lingua franca of the shop floor, spoken byworkers ofmany ethnicities. Polish workers' support was critical to the success of theUnited Auto Workers in the 1930s and 1940s and the strength of the union movement in the decades thereafter. The majority of new Detroit neighborhoods in the first part of the twentieth century and latermany suburban neighborhoods above Eight Mile were founded by Polish Americans. Poles are also present in significant numbers in other parts Book Reviews111 of the state, such as Grand Rapids and Bay City. Polish immigrants and their children founded numerous institutions, including churches, parochial schools, colleges, hospitals, orphanages, old-age homes, newspapers, fraternal insurance societies, and businesses. Despite all this, the role of Poles inMichigan history remains largely unknown outside of the Polish community and a select group of scholars and activists. The social and cultural marginalization of the Poles over many decades and the intense internal focus ofmost Polish institutions help to explain this lacuna. Of particular note is the relativelyminor role Poles have played in Michigan politics as elected officials. Aside from a couple of long standing congressmen, Representative David Bonior and Representative John Dingell, there has only been one Polish American mayor of Detroit (the Honorable Roman Gribbs) and no governor of Polish descent. The role of Polish American officials inMichigan's political history is largely unknown. This is the gap thatDon Binkowski's book Tolerated but Never Accepted seeks to fill.Binkowski is an amateur historian of Polonia and a former Wayne County judge. Like Binkowski's previous book on Detroit labor leader Leo Krzycki, Tolerated but Never Accepted is self-published in print-on-demand format. The advantage of self-publishing is that it allows an author to bypass traditional publishers who for monetary reasons would not accept books on topics with a limited commercial demand. This is certainly the case with a book on Polish American officials inMichigan. On the other hand, the disadvantage of self-publishing is thatmany books are not ready to be published, let alone read, without significant developmental editing. Tolerated but Never Accepted provides proof of both sides of the self publishing coin. There is no question thatBinkowski's topic is aworthy one deserving of greater scholarly attention. On the other hand, the book is disorganized, incoherent, and often barely readable. Many paragraphs are simply a long stringof non sequiturs. There are extensive and often strange digressions into Polish history...

Ekaterinoslav City in 1905: Workers, Jews, and Violence

In all the upheaval of 1905 in Russia, one of the most violent and volatile areas was Ekaterinoslav Province, which included Donbass coal miners, militant railroaders, and heavy industrial factory workers in and around the mines, the towns, and the province's capital city. Although protest and upheaval were by no means new to the region, in 1905 the province witnessed not only a chain of strikes, meetings, and demonstrations throughout the year, but one of the largest and most militant armed uprisings in December and several destructive anti-Jewish pogroms among the hundreds that swept South Russia in October.This characterization of the region is most fully and persuasively outlined in Charters Wynn's important study, Workers, Strikes, and Pogroms: The Donbass-Dnepr Bend in Late Imperial Russia, 1870–1905 (Princeton, 1992). The present essay, though greatly indebted to Wynn's pioneering work, seeks to build on, critique, and modify some of its conclusions.

Spinal shrinkage during a seated break and standing break during simulated nursing tasks

Prevalence rates for back pain in nurses are comparable to rates of workers in heavy industry. Spinal loading is one factor thought to be associated with the onset of back problems (Spine 9(2) (1984) 189). Loading can be measured indirectly using precision stadiometry, with changes in stature indicating the magnitude of the loading over time. Ten female subjects completed 4 h of simulated nursing activities on two separate occasions. The two trials were identical except that subjects were asked to sit for a 20-min break in one and stand for a 20-min break in the other trial. Heart rate, discomfort, rating of perceived exertion and spinal shrinkage were recorded at various intervals throughout testing. Spinal shrinkage was significantly less during the seated trial than the standing trial ( p<0.05). It is suggested that a seated break during a nursing shift may reduce the potential of suffering back problems resulting from spinal loading.

Flemish immigration in wallonia and in france:: Patronyms as Data

Flemish emigration during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is too complex to be dealt with definitively in a single article. Our main objective is to provide an overview of the migration towards France and Wallonia by looking at its chronology, and the spatial distribution of emigrants and their descendants. In this effort, patronym distribution is very helpful. As markers of migratory movements, patronyms from a collection of nominative lists give us a handle on migration flows as no other evidence can. Comparing France and Wallonia, the two destination areas, it is possible to see similarities between types of migrants: workers in heavy industry, workers in the agricultural sector, and workers engaged in domestic services. In addition, three phases may be identified in the arrival of a Flemish population in France and Wallonia: an emigration phase, an integration phase, and a redistribution phase. The last phase is also part of the urbanization process and is linked with upward social mobility.

Epidemiology of prostate cancer.

Malignant transformation of the prostate and progression of carcinoma appear to be the consequence of a complex series of initiation and promotional events under genetic and environmental influences. Increased incidence of the condition may be the result of improved detection, greater awareness of the condition, and possibly an increased life expectancy accompanied by a decrease in competing causes of death rather than a true increase in the prevalence of the disease. The marked racial and geographic differences are probably multifactorial, with genetic, environmental, and possibly social influences affecting progression of the disease. Among several risk factors, evidence for the familial inheritance of some prostate cancers is compelling. Dietary influences, hormonal milieu, and the role of environmental carcinogens are currently under intense investigation. As further risk factors are identified, it will become increasingly important to identify individuals at increased risk for the disease. These men should undergo regular evaluation with state-of-the-art methods.

Trivial pursuits or serious sociology?

Did you know that in the eastern and western outlying parts of the Washington, DC, metropolitan area, white bread sells well because people are poor, whereas in the intervening wide swath of central to suburban space, inhabited by wealthier people, whole wheat is the bread of choice (p. 144)? Did you know that there is a Mason-Dixon mayonnaise line, north of which customers prefer Kraft's tangy Miracle Whip and south of which consumers prefer creamy Hellman's (p. 129)? Did you know that NOW members are recruited mostly from urban gold coasts, elegant low-density suburbs, well-to-do professional districts, Bohemian quarters in big cities, and zones favored by intellectual yuppies, whereas few members come from poor rural areas, Southern textile towns, or farms in the grain belt (p. 211)? Did you know that politics makes strange bedfellows? Americans with the most conservative political views are either raising children in struggling new suburban zones, living in the fanciest suburban estate zones, or wresting bare subsistence from the poorest rural areas of the country, whereas the least conservative views are held by inner city Bohemians, struggling singles, the emergent black middle class, new ethnics, and unionized workers in heavy industry?

製鉄所従業員における腰椎のX線学的研究 -腰痛の発生とX線所見との関連について-

In recent years, incidence of low back pain (LBP) has been increasing. To clarify the relation between instability of the lumbar spine and LBP in heavy industry workers, radiographic findings were compared with a questionnaire on 2863 workers in a steel plant, as a preliminary study in 1986. In 214 males, 4-direction X-ray examinations of the lumbar vertebrae were obtained and the results were analyzed along with a questionnaire survey. The examined subjects were classified into three groups according to their complaints into: A; LBP free, B; LBP moderate, and C; LBP severe. Degeneration chages of the facet joint, lumbar disc narrowing, angles between vertebrae, and lumbar lordosis were investigated on the X-ray film. In general, the higher the intensity of LBP, the more intervertebral angles at all levels of the lumbar spine and the more severe the degeneration. There was a statistically significant difference between the A and C group in the intervertebral angles at lower levels. Incidence of the lumbar disc narrowing differed between the two groups. The instabilitiy of lumbar spine was found in the C group. Low back pain in the heavy industry workers can be caused by anterior motion factors such as lumbar disc narrowing rather than posterior motion factors such as degeneration of the facet joint.

Relationship between hearing loss and noise exposure levels in a large industrial population: A review of an overlooked study

Approximately 25 years ago researchers at the University of Pittsburgh conducted a comprehensive study for the U.S. Public Health Service to examine the relationship between hearing loss and exposure to steady-state industrial noise. Results of the study were presented by E. J. Burgi and K. C. Stewart at the 33rd Annual Meeting of the Industrial Hygiene Foundation, Pittsburgh, PA, 16 Oct. 1968. However, for reasons unknown, the study has been overlooked by researchers and technical search services. The research was accomplished with the cooperation of a large midwestern manufacturer. The noise exposure of this company's heavy industrial workers could be well documented over a period of many years since the noise environment had not changed significantly. A total of 2983 subjects were given pure-tone air conduction threshold tests. The study was initiated in 1958 with final data collection completed in 1965. This paper will provide a summary of the findings of the study.

Modification of work organization.

Musculoskeletal diseases are a major industrial problem in terms of both disability and cost. These diseases cause a large number of permanent disability ratings and a burden to medical services. Low back pain occurs in 50% of workers in heavy industries. Repetitive loadings appear to fatigue and weakens the tissues leading to frank failures or an inflammatory response. Identification of the injury threshold will await an extensive epidemiologic data base. In establishing the organization for prevention of occupational musculoskeletal disease, the first priority is to form an effective and representative task force. The task force must first develop the epidemiologic data base so that mechanical hazards can be identified. An ergonomic approach, if soundly based on biomechan-ical principles, and in conjunction with correct management techniques will be effective in reducing such injuries. The task force should employ representatives from all relevant constituencies and should develop programmes for hazard ...

Practical ergonomics – the rehabilitation of production workers in heavy industry

Practical ergonomics – the rehabilitation of production workers in heavy industry

Factorial Ecology in Space and Time of a City

The present paper treats the periodic change of the distribution and characteristics of population in a contemporary Japanese City in cycles of 24 hours, i. e. ‘the daily rhythm of a city’. As a typical case, Himeji City is dealt with; the analysis is carried out in a way analogous to factorial ecology.The area which is treated is defined by the municipal boundary of Himeji City. Himeji City consists of an old castle town including a central business district, coastal industrial districts with some centrality, and suburbs which are partly rural in terms of land use. Thus Himeji's multi-nuclei urban structure is obvious in view of journey-to-work patterns (Figure 2).Taylor and Parkes (1975) and others pointed out that traditional studies using factorial ecology had treated exclusively residential (and hence night time) population. Lack of data has been an obstacle to the treatment of population and its change during the day. In this paper, data from a person-trip survey, which was carried out in autumn 1978, are used. From this data, the population was calculated for each time of a day at intervals of an hour, for 51 unit areas of Himeji City, which was classified into subpopulations.The characteristics and the spatial distribution of the population at nighttime (3:00 a. m.) and that of daytime (10:00 a. m.) are shown in terms of factorial ecology. First, nighttime population data from each of 51 unit areas are inputted to factor analysis. Each input variable is a component ratio of subpopulation to the total population of the unit area; subpopulations mean groups sorted by sex, age, industry, and social subgroups. Then, daytime population data, which consist of the same variables set, are inputted. Five factors are extracted, both for nighttime and daytime respectively.The five nighttime factors are interpreted as follows.Factor 1: occupational composition characterized by the contrast between service and factory workers.Factor 2: age composition.Factor 3: industrial composition representing heavy industry workers by negative scores.Factor 4: sex ratio, which suggests also the midnight activity of heavy industry by negative (male) scores.Factor 5: age composition representing old people over 65.Figures 3-5 display the spatial distributions of the first three nighttime factors.The five daytime factors are interpreted as follows.Factor 1: central business activity, particularly highly loaded by service workers.Factor 2: contrast between employed and unemployed people.Factor 3: educational activity.Factor 4: light industrial activity.Factor 5: primary industrial activity by negative scores.Figures 6-8 show the spatial distribution of scores of the first three daytime factors.Since the above-mentioned factor analysis was applied to nighttime data and daytime data separately, we cannot compare the scores between two points of time in a day. In order to compare the population chracteristics between them, three crude variables are selected from the input variables set: these are factory workers, service workers, and housewives, which were the most representative of the variation of the population characteristics among parts of the city at both two points of time in the day.Figures 9 and 10 show the component ratio of these three subpopulations of the 51 unit areas for nighttime and daytime respectively. They suggest that in the daytime, unit areas become more differentiated in terms of population composition than at night.Figures 11-14 show the population for each time of a day at intervals of an hour for four unit areas selected from among 51 unit areas. Each population is classified into seven social subgroups. The Joson area (Figure 11), which is part of the central business district, has a larger population of all the social subgroups in the daytime than at night

Back stress: the effects of training nurses to lift patients in a clinical situation

The high incidence of low back pain in nurses related to patient handling tasks, shown by Stubbs et al. (1981), confirms the view that nurses use lifting techniques which are highly stressful. The training nurses receive in lifting appears to vary throughout the United Kingdom, both in time spent and method of training (Raistrick, 1981), but two facts need to be considered if the training is to be effective. These are, that 90% of the nursing workforce is female and that tasks performed are not repetitive. For example, the types of bed or chair and space available to manoeuvre may be different within the ward situation; the patients’ individual heights and weights vary, and the patients’ levels of dependence on the nurses may change daily. It has been shown that women take a surprisingly long time to become experienced lifters. Even for women performing repetitive tasks in heavy industry it took three years for subjective feelings of pain and fatigue to be reduced (Nemecek, 1976). The usual lecture-demonstration on the principles of good lifting techniques, followed by practice on colleagues, therefore should be regarded as just the beginning of the training programme for learner nurses. The basic principles then have to be applied with patients who vary considerably (in weight, size and ability to cooperate) in clinical situations that are often far from ideal. The ‘double peak’ of incidence of nurses first experiencing low back pain demonstrated by Cust et al. (1972) (Fig. 1) suggests two major mechanisms of back injury, causing an acute episode in the learner, or after twenty years, the cumulative effect of minor back trauma seen in the experienced nurse. A similar pattern of incidence has been described by Troup (1965) in male heavy industrial workers. It is not just the major back injury that the nurse must avoid; she must also consciously reduce the back stress experienced throughout the nursing activities, especially when the task involves moving patients. The safe lifting and handling of patients demands a high level of skill, for it requires that the nurse knows and understands the causes of high levels of truncal stress, analyses the particular situation and then plans the task carefully so that the least possible stress is

An exercise training programme for firemen

Abstract The physical fitness of 30 firemen volunteers from one brigade has been assessed using physiological indices obtained during cycle ergometry; the firemen had significantly more body fat and a lower maximal oxygen uptake than mine rescue brigadesmen and factory workers in heavy industry of comparable age. A physical training programme comprising 15 min shuttle running on 4 days in 8 for 11 weeks produced a 16 % improvement in maximal oxygen uptake and appropriate changes in maximal stroke volume and other indices. Further study of training methods for fire brigadesmen is recommended.

Formation and Development of the Inner City in Osaka during the Japanese Industrialisation

The object of this paper is to clarify how the residential areas in large Japanese city, Osaka, developed their own distinctive characteristics in the course of industrialisation. The study covers the modern period from the Meiji Restoration (1860's) to the beginning of the Showa Era (late 1920's to 1930's). The built-up area in this period exactly corresponds to the present-day inner city area. This paper also examines how and why the problems relating to the present inner city such as economic decline, physical decay and social disadvantage appeared in the industrialisation process since the Meiji Era. The author holds the following viewpoints: First, most of the emerging factory workers are assumed to be members of lower class society. Secondly, the poorer areas, which later became the inner city area, were created through the inflows of above mentioned factory workers in the course of industrialisation. Therefore the formation of lower class residential areas provides the key factor for the study of inner city problems in Osaka. Study of the labor market are used in clarifying social and living conditions of factory workers in the course of industrialisation. So the author deals with the changing process of labor markets as the analytical tool and focuses on the level of laborers' daily lives. The inadequacies of the existing Anglo-Saxon models to the areal structure of the Japanese city are pointed out, since the Japanese urban residential expansion can only be understood by taking into consideration the peculiar characteristics of the Japanese modernisation process.The results obtained are as follows: The expansion of residential areas up to the beginning of World War I characterised mainly by the outward extension of the lower class residential areas that included most of the laborers working in the cotton textile industries, heavy industry and the miscellaneous industries. The labor markets in each industry were organised differently in this development. These laborers, however, all belonged to the essentially the same class, with no appreciable income or living standard differences among industries. The organisation of residential structure consistently reflected the periphery-lower class structure proposed by Sjoberg. After World War I, the following two new factors emerged: The first is the rapid increase of white collar office workers. The second is that of a growing distinction in standard of living as well as income among members of the former lower class society, i.e., between large heavy industry workers and other factory workers. These new two factors contributed to the transformation of residential structure independently of the existing structure. The most important development was the creation of new residential areas. In this stage three types of residential area were clearly observed. The first and dominant were lower class residential areas which surrounded the city center and extended outward, building up sparse areas among some flophouse districts even at this time. This area was also characterised by the progress of the slum clearance, appearance of Korean residential districts and real advent of social policies. The second type of residential area was that of the better-off factory workers, which was formed adjacent to the factories' sites. However, this type of residential area was distributed sporadically within the first type of residential area. Between them, there were found no appreciable distinctions of housing and living conditions. The third type was white collar office workers' residential areas, which were created beyond the lower class ones and restricted to the upland lying to the south-east of Osaka City. These areas were created independently of periphery-lower class structure, which had been the most dominant or sole areal differentiation up to this time.

Mycobacterium kansasii infection in an endemic area of Czechoslovakia

Over the period 1968–1979, Mycobacterium kansasii was isolated from a total of 297 persons residing in the district of Karviná, North-Moravian Region, Czechoslovakia. Repeated M. kansasii isolations were recorded in 153 patients with clinical symptomatology of chronic respiratory disorders, single isolations in another 144 persons (121 isolations from sputum and/or laryngeal swabs, 22 from urine, and one from the aspirate of a lymph node with tuberculoid granuloma). The incidence of infection with repeated M. kansasii isolation increased from 1.1 to 11.8 per 100 000 population. The ratio of these infections to the number of newly notified cases of pulmonary tuberculosis increased from 3.7 to 33.7%. The average age of patients was 46 years, 84% of all notified cases occurred by 54 years of age and morbidity was highest in the age group 45–54 years and reached 143/100 000 population. The proportion of male patients was 88% and 56% were heavy industry workers occupationally exposed to high dust concentrations.

Radiographic heart volume, stroke volume and exercise cardiac frequency: relationship to body composition and other factors in healthy adult males.

Amongst 288 healthy male workers in heavy industry the radiographic heart volume was related to the fat-free mass and the percentage body fat which between them explained 27% of the variance. Exercise was performed on a treadmill using a belt speed of 80 m.min-1 (3 mph) and an incline which was increased progressively to 14% when the oxygen uptake was on average 61% of the maximum for these subjects. The exercise cardiac output was related to the uptake of oxygen, the fat-free mass and the ambient temperature; these factors accounted for 52% of the variance. The exercise stroke volume was related to the heart volume, the fat-free mass, the thigh muscle width, the ambient temperature, the Harvard Pack Index and other measurements which between them accounted for 42% of the variance. The exercise cardiac frequency was correlated negatively with the heart volume, the fat-free mass, the age and the Harvard Pack Index. The variates between them described 41% of the variance. The findings provide reference values for heart volume, stroke and exercise cardiac frequency in similar subjects.

The maximum aerobic and anaerobic power in a group of workers in heavy industry (In Italian) : Cuttica, F. and Di Prampero, P. E.Securitas, 1970, 55.2–3, 205–213

The maximum aerobic and anaerobic power in a group of workers in heavy industry (In Italian) : Cuttica, F. and Di Prampero, P. E.Securitas, 1970, 55.2–3, 205–213

The Relation between Smoking Habits and Physique, Respiratory Symptoms, Ventilatory Function, and Radiological Pneumoconiosis amongst Coal Workers at Three Scottish Collieries

Smoking has for some time been strongly sus pected of being a major aetiological factor in chronic bronchitis. Confirmatory evidence has accrued from many epidemiological studies involving widely different populations. Abbott, Hopkins, Van Fleit, and Robinson (1953) found that, in 294 hospital patients with emphysema and cough, tobacco smoking could be incriminated as an aetiological factor in about two-thirds of cases, and Palmer (1954) confirmed these findings, again on a hospital population. The use of hospital populations in epidemiological studies is open to danger of selection, with consequent doubts about general applicability of results, but work of Abbott and Palmer and their collaborators cited above has been confirmed in studies of representative samples of general population. Clifton (1956), in a study of rural dwellers and of workers in heavy industry in Sheffield, found smoking to be an important factor in prevalence of chronic bronchitis in these two populations. Ogilvie and Newell (1957), in their Newcastle survey, confirmed association be tween smoking and chronic bronchitis, but were unable to relate prevalence of disease to amount of tobacco smoked. Brown, McKeown, and Whitfield (1957), in a study of 1,062 men aged 60-69 years, and Higgins, Oldham, Cochrane, and Gilson (1956), in their Leigh survey, agreed with these findings. Less information is available about effects of smoking on ventilatory function. Franklin (1958) found that heavy smokers recorded lower flow rates in maximal forced expirations than did light smokers and non-smokers, this happening frequently in absence of any pulmonary abnormality. Eich, Gilbert, and Auchincloss (1957), investigating experimentally effects of cigarette smoking, found, in emphyse matous patients, that there was an increase in air ways resistance after smoking one cigarette, but Bickerman and Barach (1954) found significant effect after their subjects had smoked three cigarettes. Higgins (1959), in a study of 734 men aged 25 to 64 years randomly selected from urban and rural populations, recorded a higher indirect maximum breathing capacity (M.B.C.) for non-smokers than for smokers, but found no significant downward trend with increasing tobacco consumption among smokers. Fletcher, Elmes, Fairbairn, and Wood (1959) came to same conclusion about a group of London postmen, aged 40 to 59 years. However, Higgins, in a study with other workers of a popula tion of mixed occupations in Staveley, Derbyshire, found that the heavier smokers recorded a lower mean M.B.C. than lighter (Higgins, Cochrane Gilson, and Wood, 1959). As part of National Coal Board's Pneumo coniosis Field Research (Fay, 1957; Fay and Rae, 1959; Rogan, Ashford, Chapman, Duffield, Fay, and Rae, 1961), periodic medical surveys, including measurement of ventilatory function and physique and assessment of radiological pneumoconiosis, respiratory symptoms, and smoking habits, are car ried out on underground and surface workers at a sample of 25 collieries distributed throughout main British coalfields. The data collected on these surveys provide a convenient opportunity to examine relation between smoking habits and these other factors in complete working populations, and this paper is concerned with results obtained at first three collieries in Scotland at which necessary measurements have been made. 106