ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the background to a specific health question relating to the mining and former mining districts of West Yorkshire. It considers a number of indicators of variables that have potential explanatory power with reference to the respiratory symptoms identified by the Medical Research Council as defining chronic bronchitis. The four mining localities in West Yorkshire, within the City of Wakefield Metropolitan District, were chosen by a research team from the University of Bradford and the University of Leeds. They are referred to as Localities One, Two, Three and Four, for reasons of confidentiality, though they are in the neighbourhood and to the south of Featherstone. The relationship between age and the respiratory symptoms varies somewhat for men and women. The prevalence of respiratory symptoms is related to the culture of our localities and not simply to one or two predisposing conditions.
