A LEADING Scottish radiologist has told how he was dismissed by a French diving firm after he warned that divers in the North Sea oil industry were suffering from a serious bone disease.
Dr Jake Davidson, former head of radiology at Glasgow’s Western Infirmary, said diving companies refused to accept the results of X-rays carried out by him to assess the health risks to divers.
Tests showed that several men were affected by a bone disease as well as decompression sickness, better known as “the bends”.
The same disease had affected men building the Clyde Tunnel in Glasgow in 1960, who had been exposed to compressed air.
Dr Davidson said: “The director of a French diving company was incandescent with rage, telling me his diving schedules were the very best and it simply wasn’t possible for his divers to have bone disease.
“But when my X-rays were re-examined, several of his men did indeed have the disease. The company doctor was sacked and I was not invited back.”
Towards the completion of the Clyde tunnel, Dr Davidson and his colleagues screened the entire work-force of 240 and found that, after working in compressed air, one in five was affected in hip or shoulder joints.
He said: “Young men in their twenties were liable to be seriously disabled and consequently there were compensation cases to follow.
“Fortunately, compressed air, used for preventing water from seeping through from the river bed, is no longer required in tunnel construction.”
Dr Davidson, now retired, tells the story in his autobiography Jake’s Corner.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article