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Correspondence (including telephone memoranda) with business historian Geoffrey Tweedale. One theme of the exchange is arrangements for the OEDA archive. Includes

• drafts of Tweedale’s publications
• correspondence with London Metropolitan Archive
• photocopies of corporate correspondence from the asbestos industry, including Sumner Simpson, 1934-1957

Mainly copies of correspondence and papers, collected at an unknown date and filed in reverse chronological order either by date of document or by date/date on which it sheds light. Includes papers covering all aspects of the work of SPAID and OEDA.

Originally included a tissue sample (probably wet, formalin fixed lung tissue, c.1-2) grms) and nuclepore filter (pore size 0.2 microns) with gold support grid for carbon film. The tissue sample has been removed in compliance with the Human Tissue (Scotland) Act 2006.

Folders and date of material within as follows:

OEDA/J/9/1: 2000-2005
OEDA/J/9/2: 1999
OEDA/J/9/3: 1998
OEDA/J/9/4: 1996-1997
OEDA/J/9/5: 1993-1995
OEDA/J/9/6: 1991-1992
OEDA/J/9/7: 1988-1990
OEDA/J/9/8: 1985-1987
OEDA/J/9/9: 1988 Charity Cards
OEDA/J/9/10: 1984
OEDA/J/9/11: 1983
OEDA/J/9/12: 1982
OEDA/J/9/13: 1981
OEDA/J/9/14: 1980
OEDA/J/9/15: 1976-1979
OEDA/J/9/16: 1934-1975

Papers 1941, 1946, 1976-2004, and undated. In reverse chronological order with undated components at the back.

Correspondence and papers.

Solvents as an occupational and environmental health issue entered Nancy Tait's field of vision as early as c.1978, when she attended the International Congress on Occupational Health in Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia. The charity gathered information on topic but did not produce a leaflet dedicated to solvents until 1995; see link below.

Roughly in chronological order.

From the mid-1970s, Nancy Tait maintained very active contacts with a number of trade unions, discussing health & safety matters, news and developments. The resulting body of correspondence mostly accumulated by name of union.

From the late 1970s, Nancy Tait maintained very active contacts with an ever expanding number of victims support groups and advice centres in Britain and beyond, discussing medical, legal, health & safety and funding developments. The resulting correspondence accumulated by name of the body in question. This section focuses on the British Isles. For contacts with international action groups and victims support groups, consult 'White Lung Association' (see link below) and other international aggregations. Note that Nancy Tait's earliest contacts with grassroot action centred on Scotland and in particular Glasgow, notably the Cancer Prevention Society (and Ted Rushworth) and the Glasgow branch of the the TGW (and John Todd).

Correspondence with John Todd, a prominent representative of the Glasgow branch of the TGWU, 1984-1986.

Includes Todd’s medical notes, e-mails on his death in 2004, copy of extract of his father's entry in the Register of Deaths in 1944.

In chronological order.

Correspondence and papers relating to Nancy Tait's presentation at the PO & Civil Service Sanatorium Society Conference, Scarborough, 5-6 May 1983. Includes

• typescripts of Nancy Tait's presentation
• letter from David Leon (Social Statistics Research Unit, City University, London), August 1983, summarising his conclusions on 5 recent papers discussing risks from occupational exposure to asbestos
• SPAID press release for the Health & Safety Commission (HSC) meeting 23 August 1983, criticising the upcoming HSC meeting for narrowly focusing on the risks involved in manufacturing asbestos, at the expense of the grave dangers posed by use of asbestos
• copies of key documents and a little correspondence, including with the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, 1977, to whom Tait had written about her project to conduct 'a pilot study on asbestos'

Papers and correspondence relating to the Langbaurgh public inquiry, 28 April 1981.

In 1980 Langbaurgh District Council adopted an anti-asbestos policy, refusing planning permission in six cases on the grounds that the projects involved asbestos use. Langbaurgh's policy was unusual at the time in that it was applied to both public and private building projects.

Appeals were lodged against the refusals. Four of the appeals came from local builder C & J Buckley and were backed by the Cement Manufacturers Association. During the ensuing public inquiry, Langbaurgh District Council was represented by QC Peter Boydell and called on evidence from Nancy Tait (SPAID) and G E Rushworth of the Glasgow-based Cancer Prevention Society.

SPAID's testimony at the inquiry, it was later asserted, "brought to light a lot of new information not available at the time of the Simpson Report in 1979" (House of Lords Debate 1 December 1981, vol 425 cc1008-31).

Langbaurgh was a borough in North East England.

Nancy Tait's proof of evidence, including extensive appendix. Also Tait's handwritten notes on the meeting.

Further includes

• papers marked 'Papers referred to not appended', among them parts of Alex Cross, '[Presentation at] Asbestos Information Association third annual industry-government conference, 8-9 September 1976'
• copy of SPAID's extensive critical commentary on the final report of the Health & Safety Commission (HSC) Advisory Committee on Asbestos (Simpson Report, 1979)
• HSC/HSE correspondence and papers 1975-1977

From the early to mid 1970s, Nancy Tait fashioned herself into a lay expert on occupational and environmental health hazards, initially chiefly those posed by asbestos.

This took several forms, such as: testifying before commissions and committees, advising and consulting during ongoing inquiries, participating in relevant panels, or commenting on consultation papers. The boundaries between Tait's expert witnessing / consulting work and her advocacy activities (see link below) are somewhat blurred.