Article
ID: CBB859139480

‘X-rays Don't Tell Lies’: The Medical Research Council and the Measurement of Respiratory Disability, 1936–1945 (2019)

unapi
Disabilities; disability; accessibility Science and society Public health Coal and coal mining Respiratory diseases X-rays 20th century, early Medical Research Council (Great Britain)

During the first half of the twentieth century, the mining industry in Britain was subject to recurrent disputes about the risk to miners’ lungs from coal dust, moderated by governmental, industrial, medical and mining bodies. In this environment, precise measurements offered a way to present uncontested objective knowledge. By accessing primary source material from the National Archives, the South Wales Miners Library and the University of Bristol's Special Collections, I demonstrate the importance that the British Medical Research Council (MRC) attached to standardized instrumental measures as proof of objectivity, and explore the conflict between objective and subjective measures of health. Examination of the MRC's use of spirometry in their investigation of pneumoconiosis (miner's lung) from 1936 to 1945 will shed light on this conflict and illuminate the politics inherent in attempts to quantify disability and categorize standards of health.

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Authors & Contributors
Davies, Stephen M.
Paul R. Lawrie
Thompson, Steven
Thompson, Ben Curtis and Steven
Curtis, Ben
Wilson, D. J.
Journals
Social History of Medicine
Asclepio: Archivo Iberoamericano de Historia de la Medicina
Medizin, Gesellschaft, und Geschichte
Medical History
Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences
HOST: Journal of History of Science and Technology
Publishers
Claremont Graduate University
Oxford University Press
University of Iowa
Concepts
Public health
Disabilities; disability; accessibility
Science and society
Rehabilitation
Medicine
Disease and diseases
People
Bernard, Viola W
Time Periods
20th century, early
19th century
20th century, late
Places
United States
Germany
Great Britain
Francoist Spain
Georgia (U.S.)
Weimar Republic (1919-1933)
Institutions
Medical Research Council (Great Britain)
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