This talk with, dare I say, its possibly less than appealing title (to some), was a triumph, a tour de force by Dr Tim Carter (a TVGS member) of his life as a medic and a medic very interested in geology. From the Cambridge tours of Spitzbergen that we have been made aware of by others(!), Tim travelled widely, becoming more and more focussed on the effect on health of working with the Earth’s natural geological resources. From asbestos, to flint, gold mining to volcanoes Tim provided historical records and current analyses of these threats and the effect on the lives of those in the industry. Most of those exposed were male manual workers and literally at the coal face, in desperate conditions of dust, heat, humidity, noise, impact with little or no protective clothing or other safety measures. As local examples, the needle pointers from Redditch–high pay, short lives, and the anthrax outbreak in Worcestershire, brought in on hides from overseas.

Reluctantly, employers were forced by legislation to consider the plight of these poor people and to improve conditions. Today, Health and Safety is the butt of many jokes but go back a few years and it is astonishing the changes that we at first resisted that we now easily accept–would YOU consider riding a motorcycle without a helmet or driving a car without a safety belt in 2014?  We all did in total naivete a few years ago (if you are near my age, that is!).

I well remember visiting the asbestos mines at Penge in South Africa, on business, and seeing dust blowing around from the dumps and noting posters put up by the Safety Department (as it was known) encouraging workers to “wear your mask to live to a good age” etc.

As we heard when Andrew Bloodworth talked last month, there are still many thousands of workers in terrible conditions, forced by circumstances of poverty and no choice to be part of the supply chain that allows us to luxuriate in our technological goods. So, the problems are very much still with us. Nevertheless through the work that Tim and his associates have done and continue to do, urgently, the knowledge base has expanded dramatically and many solutions are known (but still not always implemented). Finally Tim left us with a sobering thought that safety issues lie before us and of an unknown dimension, from such possible threats as fracking, methyl hydrates, potash and so on.

Thanks Tim for a great evening, keep up the good work.