Mule spinners' cancer
Encyclopedia
Mule spinners' cancer or Mule-spinners' cancer was a cancer
, an epithelioma
of the scrotum
. It was first reported in 1887 in a cotton
mule spinner. In 1926 a British Home Office committee strongly favoured the view that this form of cancer was caused by the prolonged action of mineral oil
s on the skin of the scrotum, and of these oils, shale oil
was deemed to be the most carcinogen
ic. From 1911 to 1938 there were 500 deaths amongst cotton mule-spinners from cancer of the scrotum, but only three amongst wool mule spinners
.
detected in former mule spinners. The cancer
was limited to cotton mule spinners and did not affect woollen or condenser mule spinners. The cause was attributed to the blend of vegetable and mineral oil
s used to lubricate the spindles. The spindles when running threw out a mist of oil at crotch height, that was captured by the clothing of anyone piecing an end. In the 1920s much attention was given to this problem. Mules had used this mixture from the 1880s, and cotton mules ran faster and hotter than the other mules, and needed more frequent oiling. The solution was to make it a statutory requirement to only use vegetable oil or white mineral oil
s, which were believed to be non-carcinogen
s. But by then cotton mules had been superseded by the ring frame
and the industry was contracting, therefore it was never established if these measures were effective.
ers. It was the first industrially related cancer to be identified and was originally called Soot Wart
, then chimney sweeps cancer. He describes it:
He comments on the life of the boys:
The carcinogen was thought to be coal tar
possibly containing some arsenic
.
When the first case of scrotal squamous cell carcinoma in a cotton worker in the Manchester Hospital records in 1887, shale oil had been used in the mills for 35 years. A heavier oil was used once a day on the carriage and wheels but a lighter oil was applied three to four times to the spindles. The heavier oil may come into contact with the minders hands, but it was the lighter oil that was sprayed from the spindles and saturated the spinners light cotton trousers at the level of the pubis and groins above the scrotum. Piecers would remove any heavy oil from their hands by wiping them on the trousers.
Dr Brockbank in his 1941 paper
as secretary. It identified mineral oil as the prime cause and drew up a list of recommendations.
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
, an epithelioma
Epithelioma
Epithelioma is an abnormal growth of the epithelium, which is the layer of tissue that covers the surfaces of organs and other structures of the body.-Classification:Epitheliomas can be benign growths or malignant carcinomas...
of the scrotum
Scrotum
In some male mammals the scrotum is a dual-chambered protuberance of skin and muscle containing the testicles and divided by a septum. It is an extension of the perineum, and is located between the penis and anus. In humans and some other mammals, the base of the scrotum becomes covered with curly...
. It was first reported in 1887 in a cotton
Cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....
mule spinner. In 1926 a British Home Office committee strongly favoured the view that this form of cancer was caused by the prolonged action of mineral oil
Mineral oil
A mineral oil is any of various colorless, odorless, light mixtures of alkanes in the C15 to C40 range from a non-vegetable source, particularly a distillate of petroleum....
s on the skin of the scrotum, and of these oils, shale oil
Shale oil
Shale oil, known also as kerogen oil or oil-shale oil, is an unconventional oil produced from oil shale by pyrolysis, hydrogenation, or thermal dissolution. These processes convert the organic matter within the rock into synthetic oil and gas...
was deemed to be the most carcinogen
Carcinogen
A carcinogen is any substance, radionuclide, or radiation that is an agent directly involved in causing cancer. This may be due to the ability to damage the genome or to the disruption of cellular metabolic processes...
ic. From 1911 to 1938 there were 500 deaths amongst cotton mule-spinners from cancer of the scrotum, but only three amongst wool mule spinners
Worsted
Worsted , is the name of a yarn, the cloth made from this yarn, and a yarn weight category. The name derives from the village of Worstead in the English county of Norfolk...
.
Introduction
About 1900 there was a high incidence of scrotal cancerCancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
detected in former mule spinners. The cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
was limited to cotton mule spinners and did not affect woollen or condenser mule spinners. The cause was attributed to the blend of vegetable and mineral oil
Shale oil
Shale oil, known also as kerogen oil or oil-shale oil, is an unconventional oil produced from oil shale by pyrolysis, hydrogenation, or thermal dissolution. These processes convert the organic matter within the rock into synthetic oil and gas...
s used to lubricate the spindles. The spindles when running threw out a mist of oil at crotch height, that was captured by the clothing of anyone piecing an end. In the 1920s much attention was given to this problem. Mules had used this mixture from the 1880s, and cotton mules ran faster and hotter than the other mules, and needed more frequent oiling. The solution was to make it a statutory requirement to only use vegetable oil or white mineral oil
Mineral oil
A mineral oil is any of various colorless, odorless, light mixtures of alkanes in the C15 to C40 range from a non-vegetable source, particularly a distillate of petroleum....
s, which were believed to be non-carcinogen
Carcinogen
A carcinogen is any substance, radionuclide, or radiation that is an agent directly involved in causing cancer. This may be due to the ability to damage the genome or to the disruption of cellular metabolic processes...
s. But by then cotton mules had been superseded by the ring frame
Ring spinning
Ring spinning is a method of spinning fibres, such as cotton, flax or wool, to make a yarn. The ring frame developed from the throstle frame, which in its turn was a descendant of Arkwright's water frame. Ring spinning is a continuous process, unlike mule spinning which uses an intermittent action...
and the industry was contracting, therefore it was never established if these measures were effective.
Mule spinning
A pair of 150 feet (45.7 m) long self-acting mules with 1320 spindles each would be tended by three employees: the minder or operative spinner, the big piecer and the little piecer. The little piecer would start in the mulegate on his fourteenth birthday, and rise to the status of a minder. All these men worked barefoot, wearing white light cotton trousers. There were four basic tasks creeling, doffing, cleaning and piecing. Creeling and piecing would both be done while the mule was in motion. Creeling was about replacing the bobbins in the creel while piecing the old disappearing thread with the new; it was done from behind the mule. Piecing was about joining any ends that had broken.The piecer would catch the snarled fuzzy broken end at the top of the spindle in his right hand and pull out some clean thread and wrap it around the left forefinger. This would be pressed into clean roving emerging from the attenuating rollers, pulling the hand away when the two had twisted together. All this was done while walking back and forth with the carriage, contact being made using the three of four seconds when the piecer was close enough to lean over the frame and reach the rollers. At this moment, left arm and leg forward, his crotch was adjacent to the base of the spindles.The cancer
This cancer was a manifestation of scrotal squamous cell carcinoma which had first been noted in 1775 by Sir Percival Pott in climbing boys or chimney sweepChimney sweep
A chimney sweep is a worker who clears ash and soot from chimneys. The chimney uses the pressure difference caused by a hot column of gas to create a draught and draw air over the hot coals or wood enabling continued combustion. Chimneys may be straight or contain many changes of direction. During...
ers. It was the first industrially related cancer to be identified and was originally called Soot Wart
Soot wart
Chimney sweep's cancer called Soot wart, is a squamous cell carcinoma of the skin of the scrotum. It has the distinction of being the first reported form of occupational cancer, and was initially identified by Percival Pott in 1775....
, then chimney sweeps cancer. He describes it:
It is a disease which always makes it first attack on the inferior part of the scrotumScrotumIn some male mammals the scrotum is a dual-chambered protuberance of skin and muscle containing the testicles and divided by a septum. It is an extension of the perineum, and is located between the penis and anus. In humans and some other mammals, the base of the scrotum becomes covered with curly...
where it produces a superficial, painful ragged ill-looking sore with hard rising edges ... in no great length of time it pervades the skin, dartosDartosThe dartos fascia is a fat-free layer of smooth muscular fiber outside the external spermatic fascia but below the skin. It is a continuation of Scarpa's fascia, which is a membranous layer of the subcutaneous tissue in the abdominal wall...
and the membranes of the scrotum, and seizes the testicleTesticleThe testicle is the male gonad in animals. Like the ovaries to which they are homologous, testes are components of both the reproductive system and the endocrine system...
, which it inlarges(sic), hardens and renders truly and thoroughly distempered. Whence it makes its way up the spermatic processSpermatic cordThe spermatic cord is the name given to the cord-like structure in males formed by the ductus deferens and surrounding tissue that run from the abdomen down to each testicle.-Contents of spermatic cord:...
into the abdomenAbdomenIn vertebrates such as mammals the abdomen constitutes the part of the body between the thorax and pelvis. The region enclosed by the abdomen is termed the abdominal cavity...
.
He comments on the life of the boys:
The fate of these people seems peculiarly hard ... they are treated with great brutality ... they are thrust up narrow and sometimes hot chimnies,(sic) where they are bruised burned and almost suffocated; and when they get to pubertyPubertyPuberty is the process of physical changes by which a child's body matures into an adult body capable of reproduction, as initiated by hormonal signals from the brain to the gonads; the ovaries in a girl, the testes in a boy...
they become ... liable to a most noisome, painful and fatal disease.
The carcinogen was thought to be coal tar
Coal tar
Coal tar is a brown or black liquid of extremely high viscosity, which smells of naphthalene and aromatic hydrocarbons. Coal tar is among the by-products when coal iscarbonized to make coke or gasified to make coal gas...
possibly containing some arsenic
Arsenic
Arsenic is a chemical element with the symbol As, atomic number 33 and relative atomic mass 74.92. Arsenic occurs in many minerals, usually in conjunction with sulfur and metals, and also as a pure elemental crystal. It was first documented by Albertus Magnus in 1250.Arsenic is a metalloid...
.
When the first case of scrotal squamous cell carcinoma in a cotton worker in the Manchester Hospital records in 1887, shale oil had been used in the mills for 35 years. A heavier oil was used once a day on the carriage and wheels but a lighter oil was applied three to four times to the spindles. The heavier oil may come into contact with the minders hands, but it was the lighter oil that was sprayed from the spindles and saturated the spinners light cotton trousers at the level of the pubis and groins above the scrotum. Piecers would remove any heavy oil from their hands by wiping them on the trousers.
Dr Brockbank in his 1941 paper
In most men the bar is on a level with the pubis and groins above the scrotum. In a hot room the spinners in vest and overalls only perspire freely, and this must tend to wash off the natural grease on the skin and allow the oil to get onto it. In over 80% of the cases occur on the left side, this may be due to one or more of the following causes:
firstly the left side hangs anatomically lower than the right, this will be more pronounced when the spinner is bending forward to piece with his left hand;
perspiration from the lower part of the abdomen will then tend to run down the left side and the left side and less often the middle of the scrotum will come into contact with the left thigh and the oily trousers some hundreds of times a day.
Mineral oil and alternative theories
Leitch reported in 1922 that he had painted mineral oil from shale onto mice inducing carcinomas, while Henry reported in 1926 that shale oil was used on the rapidly rotating spindles, which due to centrifugal force sprayed out. There were however the sceptics, Alternive theories were that spinners were more subseptible to this cancer because they wore less clothes than wool spinners notibly there was the issue of lack of underpants. A Dr Robertson claimed the cancer was caused by stretching while piecing. In stretching, abrasion was caused by upward pull and consequent tightening of overalls dragging on the scrotum. Others blamed it on the ẃant of bodily cleanliness.Home Office Enquiry
Home Office Enquiry was launched in March 1925 and reported back in 1926, with Dr. S. A. Henry of Manchester,as secretary. It identified mineral oil as the prime cause and drew up a list of recommendations.
Recommendations
Firstly that guards should be fitted along the faller bar of all mules; and- Institution of experimental research into oils with a view to finding oils which are innocuous and at the same time suitable as lubricants.
- Development of a non-splaslh type of spindle bearing, more particularly for new mules.
- Prevention of oil splash from the spindles of existing mules by means of some form of guard, the type to be decided by a series of tests to be mutually agreed upon and arranged by the Masters' Federation and the operative spinners.
- Periodic medical examination of the workers.
- (a) To be tried at first on a voluntary basis, but, if unsuccessful in one year or at any subsequent period, to be made compulsory.
- (b) To be performed at the factory.
- (c) To take place at least every four months.
- (d) To include every worker in the mule-spinning room who is 30 years of age and over.
- (e) To be performed by three or four medical men appointed by the trade, with Home Office approval, for the whole area or failing this by special medical men appointed for suitable areas by the Home Office in conjunction with trade representatives, all workers in any given area to be examined by one man.
- Education by periodic distribution of leaflets in order direct attention to the importance of cleanliness and to the dangers of delay in securing early treatment.