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- Title
Anthony J. Lanza, Silicosis and the Gauley Bridge ‘Nine’.
- Authors
McCulloch, Jock; Tweedale, Geoffrey
- Abstract
Gauley Bridge was the scene of America's biggest industrial disaster, in which hundreds of workers died from silicosis in the aftermath of the drilling in 1930–31 of a hydro-electric tunnel at Hawk's Nest. This article scrutinises for the first time the role of Dr A. J. Lanza (a medical director of Metropolitan Life Insurance Company) in hiding the extent of acute silicosis amongst the tunnellers. Lanza and his allies in the medical profession were able to impose their own interpretation on events at Gauley Bridge. Their analysis of nine autopsies ignored the evidence of acute silicosis, in favour of one which emphasised tuberculosis, racial susceptibility, syphilis, the supposed negligence of the workforce and alleged racketeering by lawyers. The result was that acute silicosis largely disappeared from medical discourse and Gauley Bridge was denied a place in America's national consciousness.
- Subjects
GAULEY Bridge (W. Va.); UNITED States; LANZA, Anthony J.; SILICOSIS; HISTORY of tuberculosis; WORK-related injuries; METROPOLITAN Life Insurance Co.; MEDICAL care; DISEASES; TWENTIETH century; HISTORY
- Publication
Social History of Medicine, 2014, Vol 27, Issue 1, p86
- ISSN
0951-631X
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1093/shm/hkt047