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A reference to what looks like a case of occupational disease has come to light in a Somerset parish register from 1705. See press release below. I would be interested to know if anyone knows of an earlier case from Britain. Trevor Ogden Editor-in-Chief, Annals of Occupational Hygiene --------------------------------------------------------------- Possibly the earliest known reference to a case of occupational disease in Britain has been found in a Somerset parish register 300 years after it was written. It is in the form of a poem recording the burial of a Mendips lead miner, John Dirrick, in the village of Ubley in 1705. The poem records that his "constant employment was under ground", and "his long distemper was shortness of breath." There is no way of being certain that his shortness of breath was due to his job, but it seems likely that constant exposure to dust in the crudely-ventilated mine workings and pollution from local smelting of the ore was at least partly responsible. The reference was found by Michael Attfield, an epidemiologist with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in Morgantown, USA. Michael is descended from the parish clerk who wrote the poem, Edmund Dirrick, and came across the entry while researching his family history. As they have the same surname, it is likely that Edmund was also related to John, the dead miner. The British Occupational Hygiene Society's journal Annals of Occupational Hygiene has reproduced the hand-written entry on the cover of its November issue. A reproduction of the entry can be accessed via the BOHS website www.bohs.org for the next few weeks. Modernising the spelling, the poem reads: John Dirrick a Mendips man was buried February the 28th His constant employment was under ground his long distemper was shortness of breath his main endeavour was safe and sound he set his affections above the earth and after sixty and two years spent in labour and forever in grief and pain finding in earth no true content surrendered his soul to God again. 1704/5. Michael Attfield is himself internationally known for his work on dust diseases in mineworkers. Trevor Ogden, editor of the Annals, commented: "Edmund Dirrick cannot have expected much of an audience for his poem. He would surely have been pleased to have it uncovered by a descendant who has made a big contribution to modern standards for dust in mines. We're very glad that we can give it a wider audience. Whether or not it is really the first British reference remains to be seen, but no-one seems to know of an earlier one." Even if this is the earliest British reference, it does not rank very highly in European terms. In Central Europe, the occupational health pioneers Agricola and Paracelsus had been writing about miners' diseases almost 200 years earlier. A few years before John Dirrick's death, Ramazzini in Italy had recommended that physicians should ask about the occupation of working class patients. Many people in places like Ubley will have been familiar with the unhealthy working conditions even if they had never heard of these pioneers. Perhaps Edmund Dirrick was the first person in Britain to put this familiarity in writing.