History of Occupational Health and Safety Supplemental Resources ...

History of Occupational
Health and Safety
Occupational Health and Safety
PUBH 3310
October 31, 2012
Supplemental Resources
• Improvements in Workplace Safety — United
States, 1900–1999
– Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, June 11,
1999 / Vol. 48 / No. 22 (on the course website)
• Selected Internet websites, as noted in this
presentation
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Objectives
• After this class session, students should be
able to:
– Understand changes in our approach to
occupational safety and health throughout history.
– Be aware of some of the important people, events
and laws affecting occupational health and safety.
Outline
• Introduction
• Important people
• Tragedies
• Social Changes and Other Factors
• Laws and Regulations
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Introduction
Important People
• Workers of today go to their jobs confident that they
will return safely, and in good health. While hazards
may be encountered on the job, for the most part
these risks have been controlled.
• However, this was certainly not the case for much of
our history. This presentation will review some of the
important people who contributed to the progress of
occupational safety and health and several episodes
and disasters that prompted changes
• This presentation is not intended to be a
comprehensive treatment on the History of
Occupational Health and Safety
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• Hippocrates (460-377 BC)
– The ancient Greek physician
– Described symptoms of lead poisoning among
miners and metallurgists.
• Pliny the Elder (23-70 AD)
– Roman senator who wrote about workers who
protected themselves from dust by tying bladders
over their mouths.
– He also noted hazards of asbestos and cinnabar
(mercury ore).
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Important People
Important People
• Ulrich Ellenborg (1473)
– A German physician, he recognized the dangers
of metal fumes, described symptoms and
preventive measures.
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• Paracelsus (1493-1541)
– Known by several names
• Born Phillip von Hohenheim
• Theophrastus Philippus Aureolus
Bombastus von Hohenheim
• Finally, “Paracelsus”
– A Swiss physician, he wrote a
treatise on occupational diseases.
– Described lung diseases among
miners and attributed the cause to
vapors and emanation from metals.
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Important People
Important People
• Paracelsus (cont.)
– Paracelsus is best known today as the
“Father of Toxicology” because of his
observations of dose and response:
“All substances are poisons; there is
none which is not a poison. The right
dose differentiates a poison and a
remedy.”
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• Agricoloa (1494-1555)
– Born Georg Bauer, he was a physician
appointed to the mining town of
Jochimstral in the Swiss mountains
–Wrote De Re Metallica, a
comprehensive discourse addressing
every aspect of mining, smelting and
refining.
– He noted the need to provide
ventilation for miners, and described
“asthma” among workers who toiled in
dusty mines:
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Important People
• “Some mines are so dry that they are entirely devoid of
water and this dryness causes the workmen even greater
harm, for the dust, which is stirred and beaten up by
digging, penetrates into the windpipe and lungs, and
produces difficulty in breathing and the disease the
Greeks call asthma. If the dust has corrosive qualities, it
eats away the lungs and implants consumption in the
body. In the Carpathian mountains women are found who
have married seven husbands, all of whom this terrible
consumption has carried off to a premature death.”
• http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/agricola.html
Important People
• Bernardino Ramazzini (1633-1714)
– Italian physician, known as the “patron
saint of industrial medicine”.
– His book De Morbis Artificium Diatriba
(The Diseases of Workmen) described
the symptoms of mercury and lead
poisoning and other occupational
diseases.
– He wrote about the pathology of silicosis
and recommended precautions to avoid
hazards.
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Important People
Important People
• Bernardino Ramazzini (cont.)
– Advised physicians to learn about
occupational diseases by studying the
work environment, and exhorted them
to always ask their patients “Of what
trade are you?”
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• Sir George Baker (1722-1809)
– Discovered that “Devonshire colic” was caused by
lead contamination in cider.
• Percival Pott (1714-1788)
– A London physician, he was the first to link
occupational exposure to cancer.
• Scrotal cancer among chimney sweeps, caused by soot
• Sir Humphry Davy (1788-1829)
– This British chemist investigated problems of
mine explosions and developed the first miner’s
safety lamp.
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Important People
Tragedies
• Dr. Alice Hamilton (1869-1970)
– First woman faculty member at Harvard
University (1919).
– A social activist who worked to improve
occupational health and safety.
– Her autobiography “Exploring the
Dangerous Trades” details her experiences
in the mines and mills across America (for
example, she writes of deplorable
conditions in Salt Lake City area mines).
– http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/awards/hamilton/hamhist.
html
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• Workplace Disasters of the early 1900s
– Outrage over catastrophic events often led to
legislation to protect workers
• The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire probably was the
most important event leading to the regulation
of occupational safety
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Tragedies
• 1911 - Triangle Shirtwaist
Company
– The Triangle Shirtwaist Company was
a New York City “sweatshop” where
dozens of mostly young female
immigrant workers crowded together to
cut and sew shirtwaists
• Shirtwaists were a popular ladies
garment of the time, especially for
working women
• Sweatshops workers are paid low
wages as they work excessively
long hours in unsanitary and unsafe
Tragedies
• 1911 - Triangle Shirtwaist
Company (cont.)
– 146 workers died from fire in the upper
floors of this “fireproof” building
• Fire exits were inadequate or locked
• Many victims jumped to their deaths
– The tragedy led to 36 laws
reforming the state labor code
• http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/proj
ects/ftrials/triangle/trianglefire.html
• http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/trianglefire
conditions
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Tragedies
• 1911 - Triangle Shirtwaist Company (cont.)
– 2011 marked the 100-year anniversary
• CBS news videos
– http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7360821n
• Labor Secretary Solis
– http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/what-thetriangle-shirtwaist-fire-means-for-workersnow/2011/03/15/ABVAFIs_story.html
• The American Society of Safety Engineers, ASSE, the world’s
oldest and largest professional safety organization, was
organized in 1911 after the Triangle fire
• Etc.
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Tragedies
• 1930 - Gauley Bridge Disaster
– Also known as the Hawks Nest
tragedy, this was America’s worst
industrial disaster
– Construction of the Hawks Nest
tunnel near Gauley Bridge, West
Virginia, caused massive
exposures to silica dust
– At least 476 men died and 1500 disabled by silicosis
– Pneumatic drilling equipment and rock high in silica
content magnified the risk
– Economic factors of the Great Depression forced the
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men to work in unhealthy conditions
Tragedies
• 1930 - Gauley Bridge Disaster
– Many victims were African-
American men given the
undesirable work in the tunnel
– Silica exposures were so high
men were dying from acute
silicoses from only two months
exposure
• http://www.wvculture.org/history/wvhs122.html
• http://www.history.vt.edu/Jones/3724_S99/books/cherniack.html
• http://serc.carleton.edu/files/NAGTWorkshops/health04/LangPoster.
ppt (this is a LARGE file)
• http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5089/
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Tragedies
• Significance
– Tragedies were important in getting our nation’s
attention, because death on the job was a
“normal” and everyday event
– Example: in a single Pennsylvania county, 524
workers died in one year.
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Tragedies
• It took a tragedy to get attention, since death on the
job was a normal every-day event.
Social Changes and other
Factors
• Progressive Era
– In the U.S., much progress toward occupational
health and safety occurred during the “Progressive
Era” of the1890s through the 1920s.
Improvements in Workplace Safety — United States, 1900–1999, MMWR,
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June 11, 1999 / Vol. 48 / No. 22
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Social Changes and other
Factors
• Organized Labor
– Labor unions did much to influence improvements
in workplace health and safety by influencing
legislation as well as forcing concessions from
management.
– For example, the International Ladies Garment
Workers Union (ILGWU), established 1900,
pushed for comprehensive safety and workers’
compensation laws
Social Changes and other
Factors
• 1914 - Studies in New York City and
Youngstown, Ohio
– Revealed unsanitary conditions and tuberculosis
among workers, leading to the abolishment of
“sweat shops.”
• 1923 - Studies of the “dusty trades”
– Led to the development of industrial hygiene
sampling equipment.
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Social Changes and other
Factors
• Professional organizations
– American Society of Safety Engineers, 1911
– National Safety Council, 1913
– American Industrial Hygiene Association, 1939
Social Changes and other
Factors
• Economic factors
– The Great Depression, 1929 through the 1930s
• Government established labor standards and
encouraged unions through President
Roosevelt's “New Deal”
–World War II
• Ended the Great Depression and started a
period of industrial growth
• Some gains of recent years were lost due to
the need to maximize wartime production
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Social Changes and other
Factors
• Environmental and social activism of the
1960s and 1970s
– Laws protecting workers as well as the
environment were passed during this socially
active period
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Laws and Regulations
• Britain enacted laws to protect workers
– A series of Factory Acts (1802 – 1961) in Britain
regulated factory conditions and limited child labor
• 1802 Factory Act
– Also know as the Health and Morals of Apprentices
Act, it established minimum working conditions and
regulated child labor
• 1833 Factory Act
– Further restricted child labor
• 1844 Factory Act
– Reduced work hours for children, extended coverage
to women
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Laws and Regulations
• Mines Act of 1842 (British),
– Prohibited boys less than 10 years old and all
females from working underground
– Before this act, children as young as 7 years were
harnessed with chains to haul heavy coal trucks in
low and narrow passages.
Laws and Regulations
• Early U.S. Laws and Regulations
– Bureau of Labor established in 1884 to study
employment and labor
– Laws and regulations to protect US workers first
began to appear in the early 1900s
• The following reference to a Massachusetts Factory
Regulation is an example
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One of the first U.S. occupational health and
safety regulations, 1904
Laws and Regulations
• 1911- New York and New Jersey passed
workmen’s compensation laws
• 1913 - New York and Ohio State
Departments of Labor established Divisions of
Industrial Hygiene
• 1913 - U.S. Department of Labor
established
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Laws and Regulations
• 1916 - 1930 Forty-seven states enacted
workmen’s compensation laws.
– Workmen’s compensation insurance guaranteed
wages and medical care for injured workers.
Laws and Regulations
• 1935 - The Social Security Act
– Made funds available for public health programs.
• 1936 - The Walsh Healey Public Contracts
Act
– Required organizations supplying goods or services
to the U.S. government to maintain a safe and
healthful working environment
• 1948 - All states had workers compensation
laws
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Laws and Regulations
• 1970 - The Occupational Safety and Health Act
– Established NIOSH and OSHA to carry out its
mandate to ensure a workplaces free of recognized
hazards.
– http://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owasrch.search_fo
rm?p_doc_type=OSHACT
Laws and Regulations
• 1977 - The Federal Mine Safety & Health
Act
– Consolidated all federal health and safety
regulations of the mining industry, strengthened
and expanded the rights of miners, established
the Mine Safety and Health Administration
(MSHA).
– http://www.msha.gov/REGS/ACT/ACTTC.HTM
(OSHA, MSHA, and Workers Compensation will be
addressed in subsequent classes)
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Discussion
• What “forces” led to the creation of worker
protection laws early in this century?
• Are these forces still in effect?
• What forces drive occupational safety and
health in today’s world?
• Has worker safety significantly improved over
the years?
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