In 1921, the British Government’s Home Office published a pamphlet with the title ‘Prevention of Anthrax Among Industrial Workers: Memorandum on the Disinfecting Station Established in Great Britain for Disinfection of Wool and Hair’. A copy in the IET Archives gives a fascinating insight into how this potentially deadly infection threatened workers in the wool and hair industries.

Anthrax is an infection caused by the bacterium Bacillus anthracis which can occur in four forms: skin, lungs, intestinal and injection. It is spread by contact with spores that often appear in infectious animal products, by breathing, eating, or through an area of broken skin.

Until the 20th century, anthrax infections killed hundreds of thousands of people and animals each year. Human anthrax is rare today, with around 2,000 cases occurring globally each year. When it does occur, it is more commonly found in Africa and central and southern Asia. Skin infections represent more than 95 per cent of cases, and without treatment the risk of death from skin anthrax is 24 per cent.

In the UK, there were reported deaths from anthrax in November 2008 and December 2009. The 2008 death was of a drum maker who worked with untreated animal skins, and the 2009 incident, which caused 14 deaths amongst heroin addicts, was believed to be as a result of heroin being diluted with bone meal in Afghanistan.

In the first two decades of the 20th century the British Government was faced with a steady rise in the number of case of anthrax infection, so the Home Office appointed a departmental committee to enquire into the question of anthrax in industries using wool and hair. The committee presented its report in 1918 and recommended that attempts to prevent danger of infection from anthrax in wool by regulation of factory processes should be abandoned in favour of compulsory disinfection of the raw material. It also recommended the immediate establishment of a small trial disinfecting station in Great Britain, the purpose of which was to enable decisions to be made as to the type of station and most suitable equipment to be used.

The Government adopted these recommendations and a trial station was built that came into operation in spring 1921. Liverpool was chosen as the site for this facility, as the bulk of infected wool and hair came into the port of Liverpool, which had a highly developed organisation for dealing with this material. The water supply was also very suitable for washing wool.

The pamphlet shows the layout of the trial station at Love Lane, on land adjoining the existing wool warehouses of the Mersey Docks & Harbour Board, which was cooperating with the introduction of disinfection.

Certain classes of material were chosen for disinfection during the trial period, and those materials, under the Anthrax Prevention Act of 1919, were prohibited from entering Great Britain at any port other than Liverpool. The materials initially chosen for this disinfection scheme were East Indian goat hair and Egyptian wool and hair.

As a result of increased running costs and a decrease in the volume of work, as private concerns were being encouraged to disinfect their own wool, the station was closed when disinfection rates reached a satisfactory standard in August 1971. Unfortunately, 16 of the small staff of the Liverpool disinfecting station had caught anthrax in the course of their work during its time of operation.

An article under the title, ‘Maladie de Bradford’ published in the 20 July 1978 issue of New Scientist magazine covered the history of anthrax infection or wool-sorters’ disease, as it was known, and warned about complacency, saying: “Wool-sorters’ disease, first observed a century ago, is now virtually extinct. But this sort of anthrax can easily re-emerge if controls on the disinfection of imported hair and wool are relaxed, as recent events have shown.”

As opposed to outbreaks of anthrax in humans, outbreaks in certain wild animal populations occur with some regularity, and a warning note concerning anthrax was recently sounded by Russian researchers. They estimated that the Artic permafrost contains around 1.5 million anthrax-infected reindeer carcasses, and the spores may survive in the permafrost for over 105 years. With global warming thawing the permafrost, there is a risk of further anthrax spore releases as evidenced by an anthrax outbreak in 2016 amongst reindeer that was linked to a 75-year old carcass that defrosted during a heat wave.

The 1921 Home Office pamphlet, reference NAEST 46/13, can be consulted in the IET Archives by appointment. Records of the Government Wool Disinfecting Station can be found in The National Archives.

Read more online about the IET Archives.

In 1921, the British Government’s Home Office published a pamphlet with the title ‘Prevention of Anthrax Among Industrial Workers: Memorandum on the Disinfecting Station Established in Great Britain for Disinfection of Wool and Hair’. A copy in the IET Archives gives a fascinating insight into how this potentially deadly infection threatened workers in the wool and hair industries.

Anthrax is an infection caused by the bacterium Bacillus anthracis which can occur in four forms: skin, lungs, intestinal and injection. It is spread by contact with spores that often appear in infectious animal products, by breathing, eating, or through an area of broken skin.

Until the 20th century, anthrax infections killed hundreds of thousands of people and animals each year. Human anthrax is rare today, with around 2,000 cases occurring globally each year. When it does occur, it is more commonly found in Africa and central and southern Asia. Skin infections represent more than 95 per cent of cases, and without treatment the risk of death from skin anthrax is 24 per cent.

In the UK, there were reported deaths from anthrax in November 2008 and December 2009. The 2008 death was of a drum maker who worked with untreated animal skins, and the 2009 incident, which caused 14 deaths amongst heroin addicts, was believed to be as a result of heroin being diluted with bone meal in Afghanistan.

In the first two decades of the 20th century the British Government was faced with a steady rise in the number of case of anthrax infection, so the Home Office appointed a departmental committee to enquire into the question of anthrax in industries using wool and hair. The committee presented its report in 1918 and recommended that attempts to prevent danger of infection from anthrax in wool by regulation of factory processes should be abandoned in favour of compulsory disinfection of the raw material. It also recommended the immediate establishment of a small trial disinfecting station in Great Britain, the purpose of which was to enable decisions to be made as to the type of station and most suitable equipment to be used.

The Government adopted these recommendations and a trial station was built that came into operation in spring 1921. Liverpool was chosen as the site for this facility, as the bulk of infected wool and hair came into the port of Liverpool, which had a highly developed organisation for dealing with this material. The water supply was also very suitable for washing wool.

The pamphlet shows the layout of the trial station at Love Lane, on land adjoining the existing wool warehouses of the Mersey Docks & Harbour Board, which was cooperating with the introduction of disinfection.

Certain classes of material were chosen for disinfection during the trial period, and those materials, under the Anthrax Prevention Act of 1919, were prohibited from entering Great Britain at any port other than Liverpool. The materials initially chosen for this disinfection scheme were East Indian goat hair and Egyptian wool and hair.

As a result of increased running costs and a decrease in the volume of work, as private concerns were being encouraged to disinfect their own wool, the station was closed when disinfection rates reached a satisfactory standard in August 1971. Unfortunately, 16 of the small staff of the Liverpool disinfecting station had caught anthrax in the course of their work during its time of operation.

An article under the title, ‘Maladie de Bradford’ published in the 20 July 1978 issue of New Scientist magazine covered the history of anthrax infection or wool-sorters’ disease, as it was known, and warned about complacency, saying: “Wool-sorters’ disease, first observed a century ago, is now virtually extinct. But this sort of anthrax can easily re-emerge if controls on the disinfection of imported hair and wool are relaxed, as recent events have shown.”

As opposed to outbreaks of anthrax in humans, outbreaks in certain wild animal populations occur with some regularity, and a warning note concerning anthrax was recently sounded by Russian researchers. They estimated that the Artic permafrost contains around 1.5 million anthrax-infected reindeer carcasses, and the spores may survive in the permafrost for over 105 years. With global warming thawing the permafrost, there is a risk of further anthrax spore releases as evidenced by an anthrax outbreak in 2016 amongst reindeer that was linked to a 75-year old carcass that defrosted during a heat wave.

The 1921 Home Office pamphlet, reference NAEST 46/13, can be consulted in the IET Archives by appointment. Records of the Government Wool Disinfecting Station can be found in The National Archives.

Read more online about the IET Archives.