The Industrial Injuries Advisory Council (IIAC) is an independent statutory body which advises the Government on the industrial injuries scheme.
Two series:
- analogue registers and finding aids
- OEDA case database and data sheets
According to an early invitation, SPAID Fellowship started out as an initiative aiming to ensure that the industrially disabled were not forgotten in the International Year of Disabled People (1981).
The SPAID Fellowship was understood as the 'Supporters Club' for the organisation. People disabled by industry would meet those interested to help them and to prevent further disease. SPAID Fellowship developed around St Barnabas Church, Bethnal Green, London. Following a get-together at the home of Joan Piccolo of Rainham, Essex, in February 1981, and an inaugural occasion at St Barnabas in June, meetings were expected to take place every first Saturday of the month from 2-4 pm.
Later on SPAID Fellowship developed also at Merseyside.
Joan Piccolo, whose husband had died of an asbestos-related disease, campaigned as part of the Women Against the Dust group; see 'Morning Star', 1 April 1976.
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.
In chronological order.
Papers relating to the history of the organisation (SPAID and later OEDA).
Includes:
-photocopies of press clippings and magazine articles relating to the organisation and their work
-agenda for an Asbestos Seminar that Nancy Tait spoke at, 1984
-papers relating to events SPAID attended e.g. Health and Safety Expositions
-papers about public meetings organised by SPAID at St Barnabas Church, Bethnal Green
-examples of SPAID posters
-copies of SPAID circulars and notices
-copies of industry circulars e.g. Mintex announcing asbestos-free disc brake pads
-papers about SPAID Fellowship
-copies of SPAID leaflets and information packs
-copies of correspondence with Asbestos companies and MPs
-copies of correspondence about research into asbestos-related cancers
-copies of blank compensation forms
-copy of a meeting report, 1979
-papers about Leverhulme Research awards
-copy of a timeline of Nancy Tait's involvement with Asbestos and achievements of SPAID
-includes group of papers labelled 'Early SPAID notes'
-copies of OEDA newsletters
-some copies of articles about asbestos research
-some copies of papers about the Andrew Lees memorial award won by Nancy Tait
-copy of an article: 'The Role of SPAID (The Society for the Prevention of Asbestosis and Industrial Dideases) In the Prevention of Disease and the Welfare of Sufferers' by Nancy Tait, 1983
-some copies of correspondence about the SPAID Electron Microscope, 1993
-papers about positions within the organisation e.g. the job advert for the Development Officer post 1993
-copy of information sheet: 'How SPAID benefits Londoners', 1992
-copies of a leaflet for an 'Asbestos Freeway Kit', 2000
-some correspondence about Nancy Tait's Honorary Degree from the University of Southampton, 1999
-copy of an article: 'Review of Literature Concerning the Health Hazards from Asbestos', 1992
-some copies of case correspondence, 1993
-copy of an article: 'Malignant mesothelioma in women', 1992
-copy of an OEDA flyer: 'Asbestos: A Call for Action'
-copy of an OEDA flyer: 'Benefits Information Update May 1997'
Nancy Tait taught herself about asbestos, then proceeded to produce her own literature on the subject. These texts often were self-published and usually written by Nancy Tait herself. But the literature to which Tait contributed included also scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals. Of the earliest of these, no trace has been found in the collection. The piece in question is J S Gilson, N Tait, J Zussman, and R G Burns (1977) 'Medicine and mineralogy and discussion', Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, A, 1336. 286 (1336): 585–592.
In reverse chronological order, arranged by year, divided into outgoing and incoming telephone calls. Mainly photocopies of telephone memoranda.
Incomplete series in the early sections:
- 1992 - January to April only
- 1993 - missing
- 1994 - March to early May only
- 1995 - missing.
Discussions of consultation papers on key issues of personal injury law.
Documentation on asbestos on the London Underground.
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.