When we think of a chimney sweep in Victorian London, we all think of the cute image of Bert, Mary Poppins’ boyfriend, played by Dick Van Dyke, and the famous chimney dance from the film. The reality of the chimney sweep profession was low on glamor and resembled the darkest passages of Dickens’ work more than a Disney film. The architecture of the time did not meet the safety standards of today and the chimneys could be vertical, curved or even horizontal and very, very narrow, which is why the work of the chimney sweep and chimney sweep was entrusted between the children aged 4 and 10 from the poorest families. As Charles Kingsley relates in his 1863 book The Children of the Water, “They could neither read nor write,” or “In the North Country there was much chimney to clean, much money to make for Tom, and spend his master.” The A chimney sweep’s job was child slavery. The children, dressed in rags or naked, had to roll in the soot to sweep the dirt from the farthest corners. The smallest and thinnest were most in demand and their work was carried out without any hygienic or sanitary measure or medical supervision.
The London doctor Percivall Pott was the first to take care of these children. In 1775 he wrote the medical work Surgical Observations on Cataracts, Nasal Polyps, Scrotum Cancer, and the Various Kinds of Ruptures and Changes in the Foot and Toes, in which, speaking of chimney sweep children, one can read: “Their fate is particularly cruel , from infancy they are mistreated and subjected to hunger and cold, only to be later thrown down narrow, still hot chimneys, where they suffer scratches, burns, or suffocation, and when they reach puberty almost all suffer a painful and deadly disease. According to many historians, this may be the first modern description of an occupational disease, that is, a disease caused by performing a specific job. Pott recognized that working as a chimney sweep meant, in most cases, contracting a form of cancer in the scrotum Years later, this disease was classified as squamous cell carcinoma iced, which at the time was a deadly disease that killed many of them by the time they reached puberty. Pott continued his research and developed a surgical procedure to eliminate this condition, but only when diagnosed at an early stage.
Since this pioneering study, it has become clear how certain occupations are associated with certain diseases. Thanks to his systematic investigation, the working conditions and the health of the population could be improved. For example, we know that miners are prone to silicosis, that many offices have had ergonomic issues that led to injuries, and that many bricklayers or butane workers have ended up with chronic back injuries. The first study to show that tobacco causes cancer was done in the 1950s by comparing smoking doctors to non-smoking doctors. So it was possible to see cancer rates skyrocket among smokers. There is currently a profession, that of health coder, who is responsible for coding and entering all medical data into databases. This allows statistics to be generated about diseases and whether they are increasing or related to a specific variable.
JM Mulet is a professor of biotechnology.
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