An investigation of Staffordshire pottery workers found that the industry has a detectable lung cancer risk associated with exposure to crystalline silica. Researchers investigated causes of death among men who had worked in the Staffordshire potteries at some time between 1929 and 1992. They found this group had more lung cancer deaths compared to the national population, or the local male population of Stoke-on-Trent. Lung cancer incidence was associated with particular processes with high levels of exposure to silica. The paper concluded: “The association between risk of lung cancer and quantitative estimates of silica exposure supports the SMR [standardised mortality ratio] analysis and implies that crystalline silica may well be a human carcinogen.” In 1996, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) rated silica as a group 1 human carcinogen. In 2014, HSE was still receiving criticism for its inaction on this occupational cancer risk.

NM Cherry and others. Crystalline silica and risk of lung cancer in the potteries, Occupational and Environmental Medicine, volume 55, pages 779-785, 1998.