A sneeze in time: a bioarchaeological perspective on farming health c. 1791-1895 (original) (raw)

2013

Abstract

ABSTRACT Occupational health, from a bioarchaeological perspective, focuses on using evidence of skeletal degeneration to study past activity-patterns. However, there were other occupational risks. One of the most common in farming communities today is farmer's lung, which is caused by the inhalation of moulds, particularly on hay used as fodder. The aim of this study is to test whether enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) can be used to identify this disease in a population likely to have been exposed. The skeletal sample studied consists of twenty identified and two non-identified individuals. All individuals were analysed osteologically for evidence of respiratory disease, and ELISAs were run on bone samples. Of the twenty identified individuals all adult males are known, from census records and other documentary evidence, to have engaged in either large or small-scale farming. Their wives, based on limited documentary evidence, are likely to have assisted in these tasks. The population was therefore significantly at risk of developing farmer's lung. Farmer's lung was not identified at the time as a disease; therefore none of the death certificates record this as a cause of death although six (out of twenty) list pulmonary disease. While this does include phthisis, medical texts of the time indicate that the tuberculosis bacillus was not necessarily the actual cause of this lung disease. The osteological and documentary evidence support the potential for farmer's lung as an occupational health risk in this population. Funding. Wolfson Research Institute Small Grant was used to study farmer's lung. C. Henderson is funded by FCT grant SFRH/BPD/82559/2011.

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