Charles Turner Thackrah

1. Charles Turner Thackrah Professor Darren Shickle Academic Unit of Public Health

2. Charles Turner Thackrah Born in Leeds in 1795 Apprenticed at Leeds General Infirmary Studied at Guys, and passed the examinations of the Royal College of Surgeons and of the Society of Apothecaries Returned to Leeds in 1817 as the town�s surgeon

3. The Effects of Arts, Trades, and professions, and Civic States Published first edition of his work on industrial diseases in 1831 Book was triumph and reprinted in America almost immediately. In 1832, published a larger and definitive edition entitled �The Effects of Arts, Trades and Professions and of civic states and habits of living on Health and Longevity with suggestions for removal of many of the agents which produce disease and shorten the duration of life�

4. �Operatives,whose skin is exposed to injurious agents� �POTTERS suffer from the lead used in �glazing�� Could not the process of glazing be effected without the immersion of the hands in the metallic solution? Or could it not be effected by a machine? Or could not some article less noxious be substituted for the lead? � On visiting the Derby Pottery, some years ago, I learnt that little lead is used in the composition for glazing, and that the workmen consequently are not injured��

5. �Operatives,whose skin is exposed to injurious agents� �� On visiting the Derby Pottery, some years ago, I learnt that little lead is used in the composition for glazing, and that the workmen consequently are not injured. The total disuse of lead in glaze is highly desirable. Independently of the injury sustained by the workmen, the consumers of the article may suffer from this mineral �Surely humanity forbids that the health of workmen, and that of the poor at large, should be sacrificed to the saving of half-pence in the price of pots�

6. Lead glaze:Still a public health problem Romieu I., Carreon T., Lopez L., et al. Environmental Urban Lead Exposure and Blood Lead Levels in Children of Mexico City. Environmental Health Perspectives 1995; Vol.103, No.11 �We observed a positive correlation between children's blood lead levels and the lead content of glazed ceramic ware used to prepare food (r = 0.24, p = 0.002)� �Environmental lead in Mexico City could be controlled by adequate public health programs �to implement the production and use of unleaded cookware�

7. Child labour �No man of humanity can reflect without distress on the state of thousands of children, many from six to seven years of age, roused from their beds at an early hour, hurried to the mills and kept there with an interval of only forty minutes till a late hour at night - kept moreover in an atmosphere impure not only as the air of a town, not only as defective in ventilation, but as loaded also with noxious dust.�

8. International Labour Office (2006)The End of Child Labour: Within reach 218 million children aged 5-17�are engaged in child labour, excluding child domestic labour.� 126 million of these children are believed to be engaged in hazardous work In Sub-Saharan Africa around one in three children are engaged in child labour, representing 69 million children. Children represent 40�50 per cent of all victims of forced labour, or 5.7 million children are trapped in forced and bonded labour

9. Thackrah�s approach to research Any one, however, who is disposed to repeat the investigation, must not be content with the loose statements of thoughtless and prejudiced workmen. I lay claim to fairness of intention and honesty of detail. Unbiased by prejudice, unshackled by preconceived notions, I have impartially stated the individual results of my experiments, and notice every regular or casual discordancy. It has been my aim rather to ascertain facts than to support opinions

10. Thackrah: The importance of research �The noblest works of art have been accomplished by small and reiterated efforts. The stately edifice is composed of single stones, hewn by individuals, and the progress of science has been marked by no sudden bounds, but by the gradual and successive exertions of men devoted to the advance of the respective parts�

11. National Institute for Health Research: Transforming Health Research (2008) �Health research underpins the quality of all our health services � making a vital contribution to health outcomes. This fact alone means that it matters to each and every one of us. It matters to each and every one of us. It matters because all of us rightly have high expectations of the NHS and its ability to offer the most-cutting edge care. And it matters because delivering the best possible health care relies on doing the best possible research�

12. Thackrah: The importance of prevention �We had rather attempt a remedy for the greatest of human ills, than take measures to prevent them. We had rather contribute liberally to the support of institutions, excellent indeed in intention, but generally inadequate in practice, and at best partial in their operation, than exert a little personal attention, which can scarcely fail to be efficient, for the prevention of those demoralizing habits, which render such institutions necessary�

13. Wanless Report (2004) �A NHS capable of facilitating a �fully engaged� population will need to shift its focus from a national sickness service, which treats disease, to a national health service which focuses on preventing it. The key threats to our future health such as smoking, obesity and health inequalities need to be tackled now. Where the evidence exists on how to do this cost-effectively, it should be used; where it does not, promising ideas should be piloted, evaluated and stopped if the evidence shows that to be appropriate.�

14. Richard Oastler �Thousands of � the miserable inhabitants of a Yorkshire town � are this very moment existing in a state of slavery, more horrid than are the victims of that hellish system �colonial slavery�� The very streets which receive the droppings of an �Anti-Slavery Society� are every morning wet by the tears of innocent victims at the accursed shrine of avarice, who are compelled (not by the cart-whip of the negro slave-driver) but by the dread of the equally appalling thong or strap of the over-looker��

15. Michael Sadler Second Reading of Factories Regulation Bill (16 March, 1832) �I hold in my hand a treatise by a medical gentleman of great intelligence. Mr Thackrah of Leeds�

16. 1833 Factory Act No child workers under 9 years of age Employers must have a medical or age certificate for child workers Children between the ages of 9-13 to work no more than 9 hours a day Children between 13-18 to work no more than 12 hours a day Children are not to work at night Two hours schooling each day for children Four factory inspectors appointed to enforce the law throughout the whole of the country.

17. Died of tuberculosis, 23 May 1833 (age 38) �Distinguished by an ardent zeal in his profession, to which he devoted his mind with unremitting assiduity, and gifted with a sound judgement to weigh accurately the results of laborious and patient investigation, Mr Thackrah early rose to eminence and obtained professional honours by several valuable treatise which he published. He will be long lamented by the numerous individuals, who from experience of his talents were best able to appreciate them� [Obituary, Leeds Mercury, 25 May 1833]

18. Professor Darren ShickleAcademic Unit of Public Healthd.shickle@leeds.ac.ukFaculty of Medicine and HealthUniversity of LeedsCharles Thackrah Building101 Clarendon RoadLeeds, LS2 9LJwww.leeds.ac.uk/lihs