The history of the statutory control of mercury poisoning in Great Britain.

During the first 50 years, from the start of the factory inspectorate in I833, the inspectors' reports contained only scattered reference to ill health. In the Chief Inspector's Report for I879 was a section headed 'Occupations injurious to health', although mercury was not among the topics discussed. Under the Factory and Workshop Act of I878, young persons were prohibited from employment in certain industries, one of which was the silvering of mirrors by the mercurial process. This was a rather belated piece of legislation, as the trade was, by then, rapidly dying out (Legge, I902). Evidence continued to accumulate on the harm of certain trades and, more especially, on the magnitude of the harm being inflicted on workers in Great Britain. This knowledge was incorporated in the I895 Factory and Workshop Act, which introduced for the first time the requirement for the notification of four industrial diseases-lead, arsenic and phosphorus poisonings, and anthrax. Thus the principle of notification had been established. The acknowledgement of harm accruing from work was met by the Victorians in characteristic fashion. They set up a committee, the Home Office Dangerous Trades Committee (I898), to examine a long list of industries and processes 'and to report what, if any, special rules should be made under section 8 of the Factory and Workshop Act of I89I, for the protection of the persons employed in these industries'. Surprisingly, the only mercury hazard investigated by this committeewas from the Blake shoe sole stitching machine (Fig. I). They investigated two deaths, alleged to have been caused by work at this machine but attributed one to excessive drinking and the other to tuberculosis.