Among the measures affecting industrial hygiene, it is necessary to mention also those regulating work given out from a manu facturing firm or middleman to be done by outworkers in their own homes or workshops. Especially where the work is done in the worker's own dwelling, this is largely a question of protecting the public health. This aspect of the question is not, strictly speaking, a part of labour law, but it is introduced in part VI. of the Act of 1901 by provisions purporting to prevent homework from being carried on in infectious premises. This part provides also to some extent for the regulation of conditions of work in "domestic factories and workshops" (see p. 539). The sanitary condition of such places, like that in ordinary workshops, is left to the operation of the Public Health Acts. Though homework ers' premises may thus in theory be subject to a certain amount of regulation, in practice the difficulty of tracing them and of ade quately enforcing any rules of hygiene in them, make it essential to hold the person who gives out the work to be done in such places, responsible for their freedom from infection and for sup plying the inspectors with lists of outworkers employed, and requirements to this effect are accordingly included in part VI.
(b) Mines.—Health and safety in mines is the subject of much detailed regulation, especially in connection with the preven tion of accidents. It is impossible to reproduce in any detail these technical provisions, some of which are contained in the statutes themselves and others in regulations issued by order. Under the Coal Mines Act 1911, there must be a responsible manager, in charge of every mine, duly qualified and officially certificated. The manager must appoint a suitable number of officially certified firemen, examiners and deputies, devoting their whole time to examining systematically the state of the mine. In addition to this, the workmen may appoint two representatives who are or have been practical working miners to inspect the mine at least once a month. Part II. of the Act contains provisions as to safety on such matters as ventilation, the use of safety lamps, the ar rangement of shafts, the safety of winding apparatus, the state, arrangement and use of haulage roads, the support of roofs and sides, the fencing of machinery, the safety of boilers, the use of electricity and explosives, the prevention of coal dust, the inspec tion of the mine before work commences and during shifts, and the withdrawal of the workmen when the conditions are danger ous. To prevent accidents arising from lack of attention on the part of winding-engine men, the Act limits the hours of these workers to eight per day. Part III. contains provisions as to health. Sanitary conveniences must he provided above and below ground. Accommodation for drying clothes and taking baths need
only be provided where a majority ascertained by a ballot of two thirds of the workmen so desire, and then only on condition that the workmen undertake to pay half the cost of maintaining the accommodation. There are also provisions to safeguard the men from developing fibroid phthisis from the use of drills on silicious rock, and requiring the notification to the inspectors of any disease occurring in a mine and occasioned by the nature of the employ ment. Part IV. of the Act requires immediate notice to be sent to the inspector of any accident causing loss of life, or fracture or dislocation or any other serious personal injury, or caused by explosion or by electricity or by overwinding or any special cause specified by order. These rules as to notification of accidents must be read in conjunction with s. 18 of the Act (as amended by the Workmen's Compensation Act 1923) which requires an nual returns to be made by mine-owners giving (amongst other things) particulars of all accidents occurring during the year disabling any worker from earning full wages for more than three days. This is the same condition as that fixed for the notification of accidents occurring in factories, so that uniform statistics of accidents in factories, workshops and mines can be kept, although it is only the more serious accidents that must be immediately reported from mines. There are also provisions in the Coal Mines Act, similar to those of the Factory and Workshop Act, as to formal investigations into the cause of any accident. Part V. of the Act gives powers for the issue of general regulations for the prevention of accidents and to provide for the "safety, health, convenience and proper discipline" of persons employed in mines. In addition, special regulations may be put into operation in any particular mine at the instigation of the owner or a majority of the workmen. General regulations of a detailed nature are in force under these powers. Only special regulations could be issued for metalliferous mines until the Mining Industry Act 192o, expressly applied to those mines the sections of part V. of the Coal Mines Act 1911, providing for the issue of general as well as special regulations. The Mines (Rescue and Aid) Act 191o, which originally applied to all mines, still exists for the purposes of metalliferous mines but is repealed in respect of coal mines, as the necessary powers to make regulations for the maintenance of rescue and ambulance appliances and the training of rescue brigades and ambulance men, are now contained in s. 85 of the Coal Mines Act 1911, and the regulations in question form part of the general regulations under that Act.