{"id":1348,"date":"2022-03-24T14:12:20","date_gmt":"2022-03-24T18:12:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/communicator.pef.org\/?p=1348"},"modified":"2022-03-24T14:12:32","modified_gmt":"2022-03-24T18:12:32","slug":"alice-hamilton-a-pioneer-in-occupational-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communicator.pef.org\/issue\/volume-40-no-2\/alice-hamilton-a-pioneer-in-occupational-health\/","title":{"rendered":"Alice Hamilton: A pioneer in occupational health"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

April 28 is Workers Memorial Day, a day when we honor those who died or were injured on the job. In the 19<\/span>th<\/span> century, workplace hazards were not really studied and many suffered death or life-long injury from exposure to unsafe materials.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One woman sought to change the narrative.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Dr. Alice Hamilton. Image via wikipedia.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Dr. Alice Hamilton, the first woman appointed to the faculty at Harvard Medical School, was a pioneer in the field of occupational health, studying occupational illnesses, toxicology, and the dangerous effects of industrial metals and chemicals on the human body.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Born in 1869 in New York City, Hamilton received her doctor of medicine degree in 1893 from the Michigan Medical School, interned at Minneapolis Hospital for Women and the New England Hospital for Women and Children, and then traveled overseas to study bacteriology and pathology in Munich and Leipzig, Germany. She completed her postgraduate studies at Johns Hopkins University Medical School in Baltimore, Md.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAfter accepting a teaching position at the Women\u2019s Medical School of Northwestern University in 1897, she moved into Jane Addams\u2019 Hull House in Chicago,\u201d according to the Centers for Disease Control\u2019s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health website. \u201cThere she opened a well-baby clinic for poor families in the local settlement house neighborhood. As she acquainted herself with the families, she learned of their pains, strange deaths, lead palsy, \u2018wrist drop,\u2019 and of the high numbers of widowed women. Encouraged by the reformers of Hull House, she began to apply her medical knowledge to these social problems and thus began her scientific inquiry into occupational health for which she became known.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIndustrial medicine,\u201d concerned with illnesses caused by certain jobs, was uncharted territory in scientific circles until the Industrial Revolution of the late 19<\/span>th<\/span> century. Factories, especially textile mills; mining operations; the mercury industry; the match industry \u2013 all were new and safety precautions were few.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Some of Hamilton\u2019s best-known research highlighted phosphorus necrosis of the jaw, also known as \u201cPhossy Jaw;\u201d and hatters suffering from mental illness as a result of mercury poisoning.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Phossy Jaw<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the match industry used white phosphorous, and it soon became apparent the chemical was hurting workers.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe women who worked in the factories would often work without proper safeguards, leading to exposure in the form of vapor,\u201d according to History Daily. \u201cWorkers soon began complaining of toothaches and swelling of the gums, which eventually led to abscesses and a greenish-white glow in affected bones. The condition also caused serious brain damage, with removal of effected tissue being the only option to prevent death.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Phossy jaw was horribly disfiguring and caused intense pain, enormous swelling in the face, and, in some cases, death. Some unfortunate victims lost their entire lower jawbones. In 1909, John Andrews investigated 15 match factories across the country and isolated 100 cases of the disease. Andrews led an unprecedented effort to lobby Congress to prohibit the use of white phosphorus in making matches. In 1912, it passed the Esch Act, which protected workers by placing a prohibitive tax on white phosphorus matches.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Mercury Poisoning<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The term \u201cmad as a hatter\u201d has its roots in occupational health and Lewis Carroll\u2019s \u201cAlice in Wonderland\u201d features the \u201cMad Hatter,\u201d a nod to the slurred speech, tremors, irritability, shyness, depression and other neurological symptoms that resulted from workplace exposure to mercury in the hat-making business.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSociety has made great progress in recognizing and controlling industrial hazards since Lewis Carroll\u2019s day,\u201d said John Howard, M.D., Director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) on the organization\u2019s <\/span>website<\/span><\/a>. \u201cFor example, nearly 70 years ago, on December 1, 1941, the U.S. Public Health Service ended mercury\u2019s use by hat manufacturers in 26 states through mutual agreements. The kinds of conditions that put hat-makers and other industrial workers at risk in 1865 are no longer tolerated.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Hatter remains a cautionary figure, since exposures to mercury and other hazardous industrial substances can still occur in the workplace,\u201d he said. \u201cSymptoms from chronic exposures to mercury, lead, and other neurotoxic substances, even at low levels, may be subtle in early stages. Sometimes, they may be mistaken for symptoms that can arise from other causes. Similar concerns exist about other adverse effects that are associated with exposures on the job. It is important to be vigilant about work-related illness, and to act decisively to protect workers\u2019 health.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

If you are concerned about a health issue at your New York State workplace, contact PEF\u2019s Health and Safety department at HealthandSafety@pef.org<\/a>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

April 28 is Workers Memorial Day, a day when we honor those who died or were injured on the job. In the 19th century, workplace hazards were not really studied…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"division":[],"allowed_regions":[],"allowed_divisions":[],"class_list":["post-1348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","issue-volume-40-no-2","issue-volume-40-no-3"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAlice Hamilton: A pioneer in occupational health - PEF Communicator<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/communicator.pef.org\/issue\/volume-40-no-2\/alice-hamilton-a-pioneer-in-occupational-health\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Alice Hamilton: A pioneer in occupational health\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"April 28 is Workers Memorial Day, a day when we honor those who died or were injured on the job. 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