SAFETY AND HEALTH MOVEMENT, THEN AND NOW

BASIC OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH

BES05
 SAFETY AND HEALTH MOVEMENT,
THEN AND NOW
➢ DEVELOPMENTS BEFORE THE INDUSTRIAL
REVOLUTION
• The safety movement in the United States has
developed steadily since the early 1900s. In
that time period, industrial accidents were
commonplace in this country
❑ In 1907, more than 3,200 people were
killed in mining accidents.
• Legislation, precedent, and public opinion all
favored management
❑ There were few protections for
workers’ safety.
• Working conditions for industrial employees
today have improved significantly.
❑ Chance of a worker being killed in an
industrial accident is less than half of
what it was 60 years ago.
SAFETY AND HEALTH MOVEMENT,
THEN AND NOW
➢ DEVELOPMENTS BEFORE THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
• Understanding the past can help safety and health professionals examine the present and
future with a sense of perspective and continuity.
• Modern developments in health and safety are part of the long continuum of developments
❑ Beginning in the days of the ancient Babylonians
• Circa 2000 BC, their ruler, Hammurabi, developed his Code of Hammurabi. The code
encompassed all the laws of the land at that time,
❑ Significance of the code from the perspective of safety and health are clauses
dealing with injuries, allowable fees for physicians, and monetary damages
assessed against those who injured others.
 SAFETY AND HEALTH MOVEMENT,
THEN AND NOW

• DEVELOPMENTS BEFORE THE • This movement continued and emerged in later

Egyptian civilization
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION ❑ Much of the labor was provided by slaves, and slaves
were not treated well—that is, unless it suited the
needs of the Egyptian taskmasters.
• To ensure the maintenance of a workforce sufficient
to build this huge temple bearing his name, Rameses
created an industrial medical service to care for the
workers.
❑ They were required to bathe daily in the Nile and
were given regular medical examinations and sick
workers were isolated
• The Romans were vitally concerned with safety and
health, as can be seen from the remains of their
construction projects.
❑ Aqueducts, sewerage systems, public baths, latrines,
and well-ventilated houses.
SAFETY AND HEALTH MOVEMENT,
THEN AND NOW
➢ DEVELOPMENTS BEFORE THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

• In 1567, Philippus Aureolus produced a treatise on the pulmonary

diseases of miners.
❑ Covered diseases of smelter workers and mettalurgists
❖ Diseases associated with the handling of and exposure to
mercury.
• Around the same time, Georgius Agricola published his treatise De Re
Metallica, emphasizing the need for ventilation in mines, showing
devices to bring fresh air into mines.
• The eighteenth century saw the contributions of Bernardino Ramazzini,
who wrote Discourse on the Diseases of Workers.
❑ Drew conclusive parallels between diseases suffered by
workers and their occupations.
SAFETY AND HEALTH MOVEMENT,
THEN AND NOW

➢ DEVELOPMENTS BEFORE THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

• The Industrial Revolution changed forever the methods of producing goods,
summarized as follows:
– Introduction of inanimate power (i.e., steam power) to replace people
and animal power
– Substitution of machines for people
– Introduction of new methods for converting raw materials
– Organization and specialization of work, resulting in a division of labor
SAFETY AND HEALTH MOVEMENT,
THEN AND NOW
➢ DEVELOPMENTS BEFORE THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

• These changes necessitated a greater focusing of

attention on the safety and health of workers.
• Steam power increased markedly the potential for
life-threatening injuries, as did machines.
• The new methods used for converting raw materials
also introduced new risks of injuries and diseases.
• Specialization, by increasing the likelihood of
boredom and inattentiveness, also made the
workplace a more dangerous environment.
 SAFETY AND HEALTH MOVEMENT,
THEN AND NOW
➢ MILESTONES IN THE SAFETY • The safety movement traces its roots to
MOVEMENT England.
❑ In the Industrial Revolution, child
labor in factories was common.
❑ Hours were long, work hard, and
conditions often unhealthy &
unsafe.
• After an outbreak of fever among children
working in their cotton mills, people of
Manchester, England, demanded better
factory working conditions.
• In 1802 the Health & Morals of
Apprentices Act passed.
• Marked the beginning of
governmental involvement in
workplace safety.
SAFETY AND HEALTH MOVEMENT,
THEN AND NOW
➢ MILESTONES IN THE SAFETY MOVEMENT

• When the industrial sector began to grow in the US, hazardous

working conditions were commonplace.
– Factory inspection began in Massachusetts in 1867.
– In 1868, the first barrier safeguard was patented.
– In 1869, the Pennsylvania legislature passed a mine safety law
requiring two exits from all mines.
– The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) was started in 1869.
– In 1877, the Massachusetts legislature passed a law requiring
safeguards for hazardous machinery.
– 1877 also saw passage of the Employer’s Liability Law.
• Establishing potential for employer liability in workplace
accidents.
 SAFETY AND HEALTH MOVEMENT,
THEN AND NOW
➢ MILESTONES IN THE SAFETY • In 1892, the first recorded safety
MOVEMENT program was established in a Joliet,
Illinois, steel plant.
❑ In response to a scare caused
when a flywheel exploded.
• Following the explosion, a
committee of managers formed to
investigate and make
recommendations
❑ Used as the basis for development
of a safety program considered to
be the first in American industry.
 SAFETY AND HEALTH MOVEMENT,
THEN AND NOW
➢ MILESTONES IN THE SAFETY • Around 1900, Frederick Taylor began
MOVEMENT studying efficiency in manufacturing,
and drew a connection between lost
personnel time & management policies
and procedures.
• In 1907, the U.S. Dept. of the Interior
created the Bureau of Mines to
investigate accidents, examine health
hazards, and make recommendations
for improvements.
❑ In 1908 an early form of workers’
compensation was introduced in
the United States.
SAFETY AND HEALTH MOVEMENT,
THEN AND NOW
➢ MILESTONES IN THE SAFETY MOVEMENT

• Workers’ compensation actually had its

beginnings in Germany, and soon spread through
Europe.
• Workers’ compensation made great strides in the
US when Wisconsin passed the first effective
workers’ compensation law in 1911.
• Today, all 50 states have some form of
workers’ compensation.
 SAFETY AND HEALTH MOVEMENT,
THEN AND NOW
➢ MILESTONES IN THE SAFETY • The Association of Iron and Steel Electrical
MOVEMENT Engineers (AISEE), formed in the early
1900s, pressed for a national conference
on safety.
❑ The first meeting of the Cooperative
Safety Congress (CSC) took place in
Milwaukee in 1912.
• A year after the initial meeting of the CSC,
the National Council of Industrial Safety
(NCIS) was established in Chicago
❑ In 1915, this organization changed
its name to the National Safety
Council, now the premier safety
organization in the United States.
 SAFETY AND HEALTH MOVEMENT,
THEN AND NOW
➢ MILESTONES IN THE SAFETY • From 1918 through the 1950s,
MOVEMENT the federal government
encouraged contractors to
implement & maintain a safe
work environment.
• Industry in the US arrived at two
critical conclusions
❑ There is a definite connection
between quality & safety.
❑ Off-the-job accidents have a
negative impact on productivity.
SAFETY AND HEALTH MOVEMENT,
THEN AND NOW
➢ MILESTONES IN THE SAFETY MOVEMENT

• The 1960s saw the passage of a flurry of legislation promo

ting workplace safety.
– The Service Contract Act
– The Federal Metal & Nonmetallic Mine Safety Act.
– The Federal Coal Mine and Safety Act
– The Contract Workers and Safety Standards Act.
• These laws applied to a limited audience of workers, and
the injury & death toll due to industrial mishaps was still to
o high.
❑ In the late 1960s, more than 14,000 employees were
killed annually in connection with their jobs.
 SAFETY AND HEALTH MOVEMENT,
THEN AND NOW
➢ MILESTONES IN THE SAFETY • Work injury rates were taking an upward
MOVEMENT swing, the primary reasons for passage of
the Occupational Safety and Health Act
(OSH Act) of 1970 and the Federal Mine
Safety Act of 1977.
• Superfund Amendments & Reauthorization
Act of 1986, and the Amended Clean Air
Act in 1990 were major pieces of
environmental legislation.
• The concept of Total Safety Management (
TSM) was introduced in 1996 to help safety
professionals in organizations using Total
Quality Management (TQM) philosophy
and/or ISO 9000 registration.
SAFETY AND HEALTH MOVEMENT,
THEN AND NOW
➢ MILESTONES IN THE SAFETY MOVEMENT

• In 2000, U.S. firms began to pursue ISO 14000.

❑ Workplace terrorism became an important
issue in 2003.
• In 2007 special safety needs of older people who
reentered the workforce became an issue for
safety professionals.
• In 2010, organizations began to concern
themselves with off-the-job safety as a critical part
of their overall safety and health plan.
SAFETY AND HEALTH MOVEMENT,
THEN AND NOW

➢ TRAGEDIES THAT HAVE CHANGED THE SAFETY MOVEMENT

• Safety & health tragedies in the workplace greatly accelerated the

pace of the safety movement in the US.
• Hawk’s Nest Tragedy - solidified public opinion in favor of
protecting workers from the debilitating disease silicosis.
• A company contracted to drill a passage through a mounta
in in the Hawk’s Nest region of West Virginia.
• Workers spent as many as 10 hours per day breathing dus
t created by drilling and blasting.
• This mountain had an unusually high silica content.
• Silicosis normally takes 10 to 30 years to show up.
• Hawk’s Nest workers began dying in as little as a year.
• By the time the project was completed, hundreds had
died.
SAFETY AND HEALTH MOVEMENT,
THEN AND NOW
➢ TRAGEDIES THAT HAVE CHANGED THE SAFETY MOVEMENT

• This tragedy & resulting public outcry led a group of

companies to form the Air Hygiene Foundation.
❑ To research & develop standards for work in dusty
areas.
• The US Department of Labor helped make silicosis a
compensable disease in most states.
❑ Approximately 1 million workers in the US are still
exposed to silica every year.
• 250 people die annually from silicosis.
SAFETY AND HEALTH MOVEMENT,
THEN AND NOW
➢ TRAGEDIES THAT HAVE CHANGED THE SAFETY MOVEMENT

• Asbestos Menace - in 1964, Dr. Irving J. Selikoff told a conference on

biological effects of asbestos , that the widely used material was
killing workers.
❑Asbestos was once considered a “miracle” fiber.
• At the time of Selikoff’s findings, asbestos was one of the most wide
ly used materials in the US.
❑Found in homes, schools, offices, factories, ships, and even in
the filters of cigarettes.
• This conference changed how Americans viewed not just asbestos,
but workplace hazards in general.
 SAFETY AND HEALTH MOVEMENT,
THEN AND NOW
➢ TRAGEDIES THAT HAVE CHANGED THE SAFETY
MOVEMENT
• Selikoff was the first to link asbestos
to lung cancer and respiratory
diseases.
• Selikoff continued to study the
effects of asbestos exposure from
1967 to 1986.
❑In the 1970s-80s, asbestos
became a controlled material.
• Regulations governing use,
standards for exposure were
established, and asbestos-related
lawsuits changed how industry
dealt with this tragic material.
 SAFETY AND HEALTH MOVEMENT,
THEN AND NOW
• TRAGEDIES THAT HAVE CHANGED • Bhopal Tragedy - On Dec. 3, 1984,
THE SAFETY MOVEMENT over 40 tons of methyl isocyanate (MIC)
& other gases, including hydrogen
cyanide, leaked into north Bhopal, India.
❑ Killing more than 3,000 people
in its aftermath.
• It was discovered the protective
equipment that could have halted
impending disaster was not in full
working order.
• The International Medical Commission
found that as many as 50,000 people
were exposed, and may still suffer
disability as a result
❑ The disaster shocked the world
 SAFETY AND HEALTH MOVEMENT,
THEN AND NOW
• TRAGEDIES THAT HAVE CHANGED THE • Union Carbide Corporation, owner of the
SAFETY MOVEMENT plant, was accused of many things, including:
❑ Criminal negligence.
❑ Corporate prejudice - choosing poverty-
stricken Bhopal, on the assumption few
would care if anything went wrong.
❑ Avoidance - putting its plant in Bhopal
to avoid stricter US safety & health
standards.
• In February 1989, India’s Supreme Court
ordered Union Carbide India Ltd., to pay
million in compensatory damages.
❑ Funds were paid to the Indian
government to be used to compensate
the victims.
SAFETY AND HEALTH MOVEMENT,
THEN AND NOW
➢ ROLE OF ORGANIZED LABOR

• Organized labor has played a crucial role in the

development of the safety movement in the US.
❑ Many of the earliest safety developments were the
result of long, hard-fought battles by organized labor.
• A dissenting view holds union involvement actually slowed
development of the safety movement.
❑ Unions allowed demands for safer working
conditions to become entangled with their demands
for better wages.
• As a result, they met with resistance from management.
SAFETY AND HEALTH MOVEMENT,
THEN AND NOW

➢ ROLE OF ORGANIZED LABOR

• A most important contribution of organized labor to the safety movem

ent was their work to overturn antilabor laws relating to safety in the
workplace
❑The fellow servant rule held that employers were not liable for w
orkplace injuries resulting from negligence of other employees.
❑Contributory negligence absolved an employer if the actions of e
mployees contributed to their own injuries. Assumption of risk w
as based on the theory that people who accept a job assume the
risks that go with it.
SAFETY AND HEALTH MOVEMENT,
THEN AND NOW
ROLE OF ORGANIZED LABOR

• Because the overwhelming majority of industrial accidents

involve negligence on the part of one or more workers, em
ployers had little to worry about.
❑ And little incentive to promote a safe work environme
nt.
• Organized labor played a crucial role in bringing deplorable
working conditions to public attention.
❑ Awareness & outrage eventually led to employer-bia
sed laws being overturned in all states except one.
❑ In New Hampshire, the fellow servant rule still applies.
SAFETY AND HEALTH MOVEMENT,
THEN AND NOW
➢ ROLE OF SPECIFIC HEALTH PROBLEMS

▪ Lung disease in coal miners was a major problem in the

1800s, particularly in Great Britain, where much of the
Western world’s coal was mined at the time.
▪ Anthrocosis, or the black spit, persisted from the early
1800s, when first identified, until about 1875.
❑ It was finally eliminated by safety &health measures.
▪ By the early 1940s, British scientists were using the term
coal-miner’s pneumoconiosis, or CWP, coal miner s to
describe a disease suffered by many miners.
❑ Designated a separate, compensable disease in
1943.
SAFETY AND HEALTH MOVEMENT,
THEN AND NOW
➢ ROLE OF SPECIFIC HEALTH PROBLEMS

• Mercury poisoning was first noticed among citizens of a Japanese fishing

village in the early 1930s.
❑ A chemical plant near the village Minamata periodically dumped methyl
mercury into the bay that was the village’s primary source of food.
❑ The citizens ingested hazardous dosages of mercury every time they
ate fish from the bay.
• Mercury poisoning became an issue in the US after a 1940s study on New Yor
k’s hat-making industry.
❑ Many workers displayed the same types of symptoms as the citizens o
f Minamata, Japan.
❑ A study linked mercury nitrate used in hat production.
• As a result, use of this hazardous chemical in the hat-making industry was sto
pped.
❑ A suitable substitute—hydrogen peroxide—was found.
SAFETY AND HEALTH MOVEMENT,
THEN AND NOW

➢ ROLE OF SPECIFIC HEALTH PROBLEMS

• By the time it was determined that asbestos is a hazardous material, the

fibers of which can cause asbestosis or lung cancer (mesothelioma),
thousands of buildings contained the substance.
❑ As these buildings began to age, the asbestos— particularly that use
d to insulate pipes—breaks down.
❑ As asbestos breaks down, it releases dangerous microscopic fibers
into the air.
• The fibers are so hazardous that removing asbestos from old buildings has
become a highly specialized task requiring special equipment & training.
SAFETY AND HEALTH MOVEMENT,
THEN AND NOW
➢ DEVELOPMENT OF ACCIDENT PREVENTION PROGRAMS

• Widely used accident prevention techniques

include:
– Failure minimization, fail-safe designs.
– Isolation, lockouts, screening.
– Personal protective equipment.
– Redundancy, timed replacements, etc.
SAFETY AND HEALTH MOVEMENT,
THEN AND NOW

➢ DEVELOPMENT OF ACCIDENT PREVENTION PROGRAMS

• Individual components of broader safety programs have evolved since the

late 1800s.
❑ Early employers had little concern for worker safety.
❑ And little incentive to be concerned.
❑ Between World War I & World War II, industry discovered the
connection between quality & safety.
❑ World War II labor shortages created a greater openness toward
giving safety the serious consideration it deserved.
SAFETY AND HEALTH MOVEMENT,
THEN AND NOW
➢ DEVELOPMENT OF ACCIDENT PREVENTION PROGRAMS

• Industry began to realize:

❑Improved engineering could prevent accidents.
❑Employees were willing to learn and accept est
ablished safety rules, which could be enforced.
❑– Financial savings from safety improvement c
ould be reaped by savings in compensation an
d medical bills.
SAFETY AND HEALTH MOVEMENT,
THEN AND NOW

➢ DEVELOPMENT OF ACCIDENT PREVENTION PROGRAMS

Early safety programs were based

on the three E’s of safety:
– Engineering.
– Education.
– Enforcement.
 SAFETY AND HEALTH MOVEMENT,
THEN AND NOW
➢ DEVELOPMENT OF SAFETY
ORGANIZATIONS
• Numerous organizations are
devoted in full, or at least in
part, to promotion of safety &
health in the workplace.
– Shown are organizations
with workplace safety as
part of their missions.
SAFETY AND HEALTH MOVEMENT,
THEN AND NOW

➢ DEVELOPMENT OF SAFETY ORGANIZATIONS

SAFETY AND HEALTH MOVEMENT,
THEN AND NOW
➢ DEVELOPMENT OF SAFETY ORGANIZATIONS

• Safety organizations in this country had humble beginnings—the

grandfather of them all is the NSC.
❑ The Association of Iron & Steel Electrical Engineers called
for a national industrial safety conference In 1911.
❑ The first Cooperative Safety Congress met in Milwaukee in
1912.
❑ In New York City, the National Council of Industrial Safety w
as formed in 1913, changed to the National Safety Council
at the 1915 meeting
❑ Today, the NSC is the largest organization in the US
devoted solely to safety & health practices/procedures.
SAFETY AND HEALTH MOVEMENT,
THEN AND NOW

➢ DEVELOPMENT OF SAFETY ORGANIZATIONS

• The Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) is the

government’s administrative arm for the Occupational Safety &
Health Act of 1970.
• OSHA sets/revokes safety & health standards, conducts inspecti
ons, investigates problems…
❑ Issues citations & assesses penalties.
❑ Petitions courts to take action against unsafe employers.
❑ Provides safety training & injury prevention consultation.
❑ Maintains a database of health and safety statistics.
SAFETY AND HEALTH MOVEMENT,
THEN AND NOW
➢ DEVELOPMENT OF SAFETY ORGANIZATIONS

• The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health

(NIOSH) is part of the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) of the Department of Health and Human
Services.
❑NIOSH is required to publish annually a
comprehensive list of all known toxic substances.
❑NIOSH will also provide on-site tests of potentially
toxic substances so that companies know what they
are handling and what precautions to take
SAFETY AND HEALTH MOVEMENT,
THEN AND NOW

➢ SAFETY AND HEALTH MOVEMENT TODAY

• Today, there is widespread understanding of the importance of providing a safe & healthy w
orkplace.
❑ After World War II, practitioners of occupational health & safety began to see the need fo
r cooperative efforts.
• Early, vocal proponent of the cooperative/integrated approach was H.G.Dyktor, who advocated:
❑ Learn more by sharing knowledge about workplace health problems, particularly those
caused by toxic substances.
❑ Provide a greater level of expertise in evaluating health and safety problems.
❑ Provide a broad database that can be used to compare health and safety problems
experienced by different companies in the same industry
❑ Encourage accident prevention.
❑ Make employee health and safety a high priority.
SAFETY AND HEALTH MOVEMENT,
THEN AND NOW
➢ INTEGRATED APPROACH TO SAFETY AND HEALTH

• OSHA reinforces the integrated approach by requiring companies

to have a plan for:
• – Providing appropriate medical treatment for injured or ill
workers.
• – Regularly examining workers who are exposed to toxic
substances.
• – Having a qualified first-aid person available during all
working hours.
• Larger companies often maintain a staff of safety & health
professionals.
• – Smaller companies may contract out fulfillment of these
requirements.
SAFETY AND HEALTH MOVEMENT,
THEN AND NOW

➢ INTEGRATED APPROACH TO SAFETY AND HEALTH

• Health & safety staff in a modern industrial company may include the following positions:
❑ Industrial hygiene chemist and/or engineer – companies that use toxic substance
s may employ industrial hygiene chemists to test work environment & people
working in it.
❑ Radiation control specialist - monitor radiation levels to which workers may be
exposed, test for levels of exposure, respond to radiation accidents, develop
company-wide plans for handling radiation accidents.
❑ Industrial safety engineer or manager - safety & health generalists with
specialized education and training.
SAFETY AND HEALTH MOVEMENT,
THEN AND NOW

➢ NEW MATERIALS, NEW PROCESSES, AND NEW PROBLEMS

• The materials out of which products are made have become increasingly complex and
exotic.
❑ Carbon steels, cast steels, cast irons, tungsten, molybdenum, lead, tin, zinc,
and powdered metals.
• Each of these metals requires its own specialized processes.
• Nonmetals are more numerous & more complex, with their own potential hazards to
the workplace
❑ Plastics, plastic alloys and blends, advanced composites.
❑ Fibrous materials, elastomers, and ceramics.
• Modern industrial processes are also becoming more complex—as they are
automated, potential hazards associated with them often increase.
SAFETY AND HEALTH MOVEMENT,
THEN AND NOW

➢ RAPID GROWTH IN THE PROFESSION

• Complexities of the modern workplace have made safety and health a

growing profession.
❑ Associate & baccalaureate degree programs in industrial technology
typically include industrial safety courses.
• Some engineering degree programs have safety & health tracks, and
several colleges and universities offer full degrees in occupational safety &
health.
• More large companies are employing safety & health professionals and more
small companies are assigning these duties to existing employees.
Thank You!