The doctors and the dockers

Abstract

Background: London Dockers unloading a dusty asbestos cargo in 1965, consulted an eminent Occupational Health physician, Dr. Donald Hunter who informed them that they had been at serious risk. A second, opinion provided jointly by a Consultant Chest Physician, the Port Medical Officer, and the Medical Advisor to the Trades Union Congress, declared that they knew of no disease affecting dockers, and stated that intermittent exposure to asbestos constituted an inconsiderable risk that with certain precautions would be eradicated. Methods: Archival material have been obtained to supplement limited published material and eyewitness accounts of the event, to provide a clearer picture of the issues. Results: Reassured by the Chest Physician, the Port Medical Officer, and the Medical Advisor to the Trades Union Congress that they had little to fear, London dockers resumed unloading asbestos. From time to time dockers at other ports were to express concern and interrupt work, only to be similarly reassured. Conclusions: Had the medical troika in 1965 considered the available health statistics, they would have had reason to take a less sanguine attitude to the cancer mortality of dockers. An analysis of data for 16 selected occupations for the years 1900-1902, showed dockers to have an unhealthy job, with deaths from 'All Cancers' of 1.09 per 1,000 years of life (the fourth highest). The Registrar General's occupational mortality report for 1951, noted excess tumors of the lung and stomach for dockers. Elevated Standardized Mortality Ratios for lung cancer had consistently been calculated by the Registrar General for the 20-64 age group of dockers; in 1931 (183), 1951 (149), and 1961 (169): by 1971 it would be 182. A total of 266 dockers were to be registered in the UK by 1999 as having died of malignant mesotheliomas, proving that Donald Hunter's concern for dockers had not been excessive. © 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc.