Posted By mike grey It was probably done to encourage vomiting if you inhaled or ingested any "nasties"

Posted By Heather Aston We were still handing out free milk in the 1980s - I'm not sure why as any requirement to do so was long gone. As it had become custom and practice it was very hard to get stopped - even when we found that one or two workers had changed thier "daily pinta" to a daily carton of orange juice! Heather

Posted By Stephen D. Clarke Fascinating - I always drank 2 bottles of milk at school but my son's asthma is markedly worse when he drinks milk. I believe the Japanese don't tend to drink much, something tells me there isn't even a Japanese word for milk. An epidemiological study would be interesting if it hasn't already been done.

Posted By Robert (Rod) Douglas Stephen, When I started work as an apprentice Panel Beater (1976) I was given a free Pint of Milk a day and so were the other Panel Beaters I was told it was because it was a dusty environment???????? Aye, Rod D

Posted By George Wedgwood Yes, it has all been discussed before as pointed out - also given to steel workers in the 50's and 60's to help with the fume and dust!

Posted By Jeff Manion Have worked in a London location within last few years where asbetsos was present and they asked for their milk as they had been provided with it beofre when works with asbestos had been completed. JM

Posted By Paul Craythorne Another one of them old token health and safety control measures (if it ever had any effective control). In 1995 I took over as HS&E Manager at a large engineering company in Birmingham (formerely a Lucas site) and was amazed when I was asked to arrange the purchase of denim jeans for the guys who worked in the machining area. Apparently this was a tradition going back years and had been agreed between the management and union of the time. The reason for the issue of free jeans to machinists was that they regularly got covered in mineral oils from their old machines and the denim jeans had been provided as PPE!!! I wasn't very popular at first when I immediately halted this practice and set about making sure they didn't get exposed to mineral oils in the first place. The good old days eh!! How wonderful they were. Regards, Paul Craythorne

Posted By Zoe Barnett A bit off-topic but anyone with asthma or similar catarrh-y sorts of problems will probably benefit from a change to goat's milk. My son used to get terribly congested sinuses, we swapped milk on the advice of an osteopath and problem solved overnight (literally).