Course:SPPH381B/Essays/Occupational health since Ramazzini - Alberije

Early History

One of the many influential figures in occupational health and safety after Ramazzini was Percival Pott of the United Kingdom. In 1775, He discovered that young chimney sweeps were much more highly afflicted with scrotal cancers than the general population. Along with discovering the first known cause of cancer, Pott also made a set of recommendations to prevent the further incidence of scrotal cancers. He suggested that chimney sweeps be given a second set of clothing, as they often swept naked for fear of soiling their only set of clothing. He also suggested that chimney sweeps be allowed to bathe after sweeping chimneys. His recommendations were met with resistance in the UK, even after the passing of the Chimney Sweeps Act of 1788. However, the Netherlands, which adopted Pott’s recommendations, saw a decrease in cases of scrotal cancer . At the same time, in Germany and Sweden, where chimney sweeping was being done from above as opposed to from inside, and where protective clothing and hygiene were used, scrotal cancers were almost non-existent.

In 1798 in the United States, the Marine Hospital Service was implemented to tend for merchants sailors who might have fallen ill at sea, or contracted illness from travelling. They also helped to prevent the spread of diseases as small pox, yellow fever and cholera.

In 1842, Edwin Chadwick published his “Report on the Sanitary Conditions the Labouring Population of Great Britain and on the Means of Its Improvement.” Chadwick had gathered data about mortality rates in different regions of England and Wales, and sorted them by cause of death. He linked these diseases to the availability of water in and to general sanitation in each district.

Rudolf Virchow was sent to Prussian coal mines in 1848 to examines cases of typhus. HIs report, filled with criticisms of the coal miners' living and working conditions, was not given serious consideration allegedly due to his left-leaning political ideology.

The most influential work in the field of occupational health after Ramazzini is argued to have been the work of Thackrah, who incorporated epidemiology into his research. He noted that death rates in industrialized cities far exceeded those of agricultural areas, and that there sharp differences in health and longevity among the different social classes. He advocated strongly for disease prevention, and strongly against child labour.

British Columbia

In the 1870’s, mining was widespread in British Columbia (BC), as were injuries and deaths to workers in this industry. Coal mines on Vancouver Island were deemed the most dangerous coal mines in the world, a finding which sparked the creation of BC’s first unions (Chaklader, 1998). At the peak of the Industrial Revolution, people were taking notice of the health inequities between the poor and wealthy. Petenkoffer wrote, “Political and social conditions are also influential upon the health and mortality of a population. All over the world the rich generally enjoy better health and live longer than the poor. Every epidemic […] takes a larger toll from the poorer classes.” In an attempt to calm the socialist sentiment spreading through Germany, the state enacts the world’s first Workers’ Compensation Insurance in 1880, which formed the basis for similar laws which were later passed in other Western European countries, and in North America. In Canada, workers compensation falls under provincial jurisdiction. It was not until 1917 that British Columbia first adopted the workers compensation system. Workers’ compensation insurance in BC (WorkSafe BC) is unusual among the Canadian provinces in that the body involved is also responsible for inspections, regulations and enforcement of regulations through fines (Chaklader, 1998).

Twentieth Century

The early twentieth century saw the advancement of knowledge of work-related diseases, and the birth of occupational medicine as a discipline. Pioneer Alice Hamilton worked to survey industrial toxins and their toll on workers. Dr. Hamilton discovered seventy different processes in industry by which workers became exposed to lead. She later became a professor of Industrial Medicine at Harvard University, at a time when industrial toxicology was in its infancy, and when women were not even accepted as students at Harvard (American Chemical Society, 2002). Despite Hamilton’s efforts and successes, occupational medicine struggled in its early years due to a disconnect between scientists and labourers (Abrams, 1994). Abrams argues that this disconnect is the major reason why preventive measures were delayed for decades for known toxicological agents in the workplace. Irving Selikoff is a great example of the great things that happen when science is involved in industry. Working with the unions representing insulation workers, he began a massive campaign in the 1960s exposing the links between asbestos exposure and lung diseases (McCulloch and Tweedale, 2007).

Even in the midst of growing scientific evidence of work hazards and legal measures ensuring workers’ safety, occupational safety was not always a priority for the general public. Writer Upton Sinclair published the results his covert observations of Eastern European immigrants working in Chicago’s meat-packing industry. Intending to promote changes to the dire conditions of these workers, the general public’s outrage was channeled towards the safety of the meat they were consuming (Abrams, 1994). While Sinclair’s exposé brought about the U.S.’s first food regulation act, he was disappointed, noting, “I had been made into a celebrity not because the public cared anything about the sufferings of workers, but simply because the public did not prefer to eat tubercular beef… I aimed at the public’s heart, and by accident, I hit it in the stomach.” After the hazards of the workplace began to gain importance among the general public, the next step was to pass legislation outlining preventive regulations. In 1975, Saskatchewan became the first province to adopt comprehensive Occupational Health and Safety legislation, with some provinces such as B.C. not following suit until 1998 (Workers’ Compensation Board of British Columbia).