Interesting comments from Evan and Mason, must admit these days I don't
handle nitro based that often but I have made a couple of mistakes
recently and aspirin don't help.
The story came from my wife's uncle who was a manager at the now closed
Agecroft Pit, he recounts that when he started in the 30's, it was quite
a common practice.
On the other comments, the nitro dilates the blood vessels and it is
this effect that causes the headaches, constant contact (that is daily
not once a week firing) with it, ensures the vessels remain dilated - a
similar thing to taking nitro tablets for heart problems. Old miners
made sure that they handled it each day even if not firing. However, it
does you no good in the long run. Not quite sure of the actual medical
reasons, it probably weakend the blood vessels leading to strokes or
something, but I have some accounts of miners/quarrymen who died up to
the mid 50's, and the cause was put down to *nitroglycerine poisoning*.
regards
--
Phil Ingham
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