So you thought that you were having a bad day? Spare a thought for this poor bastard from history! This misadventure involves a case of phossy jaw and early attempts to investigate the unsafe practices being undertaken at scumbag match manufacturers who cared only about their vile unsafe product containing white phosphorus and not the health and safety of their workforce. Most of these were child abusers and abusers of women also.
The case of Thomas Davis told in the Birmingham Daily Post of 6th April 1907 is tragic in that it appears he was firstly injured and then killed by this employer, and perhaps must have been one of the most unfortunate and accident prone blokes to set foot in such an establishment. Starting as a labourer, he lost a leg and then ended up picking up splints of phosphorus for lucifer matches.
It was hypothesised that he chewed baccy as he sat picking up contaminated material and could have transferred p4 to his mouth by doing this; a filthy habit that cost him his life. It is however stated that he had been employed in the industry for some time and that long tern exposure could have resulted.
The recommended actions as a result of the report are fairly meaningless.
1 To employ only adult males at the dipping tables. – Screw the men then!
2 To provide gloves for this purpose
3. To redesign the “fork” used to pick up the splints of phosphorus.
4 Put sawdust on the floor- what the fuck would this do except aid a fire?
5. Ban tobacco chewing in the workplace
6 Inspecting the paupers hands for cleanliness!
The most bizarre statement made in the report is that short of banning white phosphorus matches or making the process automated there was nothing else that could be done. Of course this statement is the elephant in the room here in that white phosphorus matches SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN ALLOWED, AND THAT ANY CARING GOVERNMENT WOULD HAVE BANNED THEM OUTRIGHT TO START WITH!
It also shows again how the Berne Convention was a fraud and that workers were still being harmed after its pompous announcement in this country till at least 1910.
The manufacturer in question was S.J. Moreland and Sons eventually consumed by the Quaker scum Bryant and May. The main product made was a match known as “England’s Glory. ”
Earlier, another report by Thomas Oliver from 1904 “Industrial Diseases due to certain Poisonous Fumes or Gases Phosphorus, Sulphuretted Hydrogen,
Carbon Monoxide “ had looked at phosphorus poisoning and can be read below, giving some interesting context to match manufacture with phosphorus in Britain, and also cases of phossy jaw that were reported. This of course may not have been accurate due to the commercial concerns of the discredited match industry and early public relations. Phosphorus necrosis may also have only been detected many years after being exposed to it- so even the “ban” was a red herring.
“Prevalence of Industrial Phosphorus Poisoning.
The total number of cases of phosphorus poisoning in Britain coming under the provision
of the Factory Act, and of which there are definite records during the 20 years
ending December, 1899, is 102, and of these 19 terminated fatally.
Since then the following cases have been notified to the Chief Inspector of Factories : —
Cases. Deaths.
1900 4 0
1901 4 0
1902 3 1
1903 0 0
From 1880-1903
113 20
What those completing the 1907 report fail to have grasped are the airborne fumes of phosphorus rather than the physical product itself. Oliver three years earlier noted
“Phosphorus fumes are known to be harmful to animal tissues, including
bone. Prof. Thorpe found, on exposing decayed teeth to the fumes of phosphorus for 12 hours that they lost 0″37 per cent, of their weight, also when carious teeth were crushed and exposed to a dilute solution of phosphoric acid (1 per cent.) that they lost 8’9 per cent, of their original weight.
In the air of a dipping room of a match factory Thorpe* found 0’02
milligrammes of phosphorus per 100 litres of air, while the same quantity of air of the boxing room contained 0.12 milligrammes of phosphorus. After working
on an average four hours each, 22 employees in a match factory were caused to wash their hands in a particular basin of water. On analysing the water
Thorpe found 37’3 milligrammes of phosphorus.”
This therefore concludes that phossy water was produced from hands being washed, one of the recommendations from the ill conceived report from above.
It is also interesting that Oliver noted in 1904 ”
“The manufacture of phosphorus at Oldbury, near Birmingham, is attended
with little risk to health as it is carried on mechanically and in covered-in vessels. Necrosis, however, is not unknown there.”
I’m afraid this was bullshit, and no doubt he had been nobbled into believing this by the Quaker freaks. We know that phossy jaw cases continued at Albright and Wilson into the 1960s!
Of course, there is probably little doubt as to where the white phosphorus that killed Thomas Davis originated- that would be the same place in Oldbury where manufacture of the unnatural poison would also kill people there.