Respiratory Symptoms, Bronchitis, and Ventilatory Capacity in Random Sample of an Agricultural Population

Measurement of disease in industry necessitates suitable controls. A comparison of miners and ex-miners,with non-miners of similar age living in the same neighbour- hood has been made (Higgins et al., 1956). In that com- parison it is possible that our controls may have been affected by the industrial environment of the mining community to some extent, and accordingly any deleter- ious effect of mining on health may have been under- estimated. We have tried to assess the importance of the environment by studying an agricultural community.