Module 6 – Impacts of Tragedies and Society• Brief History of OSH

• Hippocrates (460-377 BC)

• Pliny the Elder (23-70 AD)

• Ulrich Ellenborg (1473) • A German physician, he recognized the dangers of

metal fumes, described symptoms and preventive measures.

History of OSH• Paracelsus (1493-1541)

• 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.”

History of OSH• Agricoloa (1494-1555)

•He noted the need to provide ventilation for miners•“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.”

History of OSH• Bernardino Ramazzini (1633-1714)

• Italian physician, known as the “patron saint of industrial medicine”.

• His book,The Diseases of Workmen, described the symptoms of mercury and lead poisoning and issues with silica

• . 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?”

History of OSH

• 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) • Investigated problems of mine explosions and

developed the first miner’s safety lamp.

History of OSH• 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/hamilton/hamhist.html

Question???• Why do we think or believe work is not risky (unsafe)?

• Think Sandman

• When do We learn of Occupational Safety Incidents?

US OSH Tragedies and Effects

• 1860 Pemberton Mills - Lawrence MA.• Mill Collapses 145 Deaths 166 Injured

• 1878 Washburn Mill - Minneapolis MM• 18 Killed Flour Dust Explosion• Leveled 7.5 story building

• 1900 – Pleasant Valley Coal Mine• 200 Workers killed (Black Powder Explosion)

• 1902 Fraterville Coal Mine - Coal Creek TN• 194 Men and boys - Methane Explosion

Tragedies

• 1907 - Monongah WV – Monongah # 6 and #8• 362 0f 380 Men and Boys working that day died

• 3200 miners lost their lives of 14,000 Workers in US

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Nq2ryRSdpk

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

• http://video.pbs.org/video/1817898383/\

Tragedies

• Triangle Shirtwaist Factory

• The tragedy led to 36 laws reforming the state labor code

• http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/trianglefire/legacy/index.html

Tragedies• 1913 Stag Canon Coal Mine – Dawson NM

• 261 out of 284 die in mine, 2 rescue Workers

• Dust Explosion

• 1930s – Hoover Dam – Boulder City NV• 112 deaths

• 42 died of “pneumonia”• CO exposure diversion tunnels

• Compared to 11 on Golden Gate Bridge Construction

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLRCZAXfEa4

Tragedies

• 1927 - 1935 – Hawks Nest Tunnel Disaster• America’s worst industrial disaster

• Construction of the Hawks Nest tunnel near Gauley Bridge, West Virginia, caused massive exposures to silica dust

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2BaqHo07cQ&feature=related

Tragedies

• At least 476 men died estimates as high as 1500 deaths by silicosis

• Most victims were African-American men given the undesirable work in the tunnel

• Silica exposures were so high men were dying from acute silicosis from only two months exposure

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMmBsXzkj4I

Tragedies

• 1944 – Port Chicago CA• 320 killed when 4600 tons of munitions

explode loading a ship.

• 1944 – East Ohio Gas Co. – Cleveland Ohio• 130 die as result gas exploding in sewers in

residential area

Tragedies

• 1947 – S.S. Grandcamp Texas City TX• Explosion following fire of Ammonium Nitrate

(fertilizer)• 581 killed (entire fire department from Texas City)• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TworcINhDhQ• http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=V8_Ka

Wg5bI8

Tragedies

• 1965 – Titan II Missile Silo Searcy AK• Electrical fire and explosion trapped and killed

53 inside silo.

• 1968 - Farmington WV• 78 miners die coal dust explosion

• 1978 – Willow Island WV• Coal Power Plant Cooling tower collapses during

construction. 51 Killed

• 1979 – Three Mile Island – Harrisburg PA• No loss of life?• Environmental Contamination

Tragedies

• 1984 – Union Carbide Bhopal India• Methyl Isocynate Gas Leak

• Varying estimates, 3000 killed, other another 11,000 related to gas leak• 2006 500,000 injuries, 38,000 temporary partial

disability, and 3900 severe permanent disability

Tragedies

• 1984 – Union Carbide Bhopal India

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uz73rcdSG80 (33:51)

Tragedies

• 1985 – Union Oil – Romeoville IL• Refinery Explosion

• 17 deaths

• 1988 – Oil Rig Piper Alpha North Sea• Explosion

• 167 deaths

• 1989 – Phillips Chemical Pasadena TX• Explosions kills 23 injures 314

Tragedies

• 1991 – Imperial Foods Hamlet NC• Flash fire

• 25 workers killed 54 injured

Tragedies• 2005 – British Petroleum, Texas City TX

• Broken Safety Devices

• 15 killed 170 Injured

• http://www.csb.gov/investigations/detail.aspx?SID=20&Type=2&pg=1&F_InvestigationId=20

• (3:20)• OSHA issues record breaking fines to BP - $87,430,000

in proposed penalties to BP for the company's failure to correct potential hazards faced by employees. The fine is the largest in OSHA's history. The prior largest total penalty, $21 million, was issued in 2005, also against BP.

Tragedies• 2008- Imperial Sugar, Port Wentworth GA

• Combustible Dust Explosion

• 13 killed 30 injured

• http://www.csb.gov/investigations/detail.aspx?SID=6

Tragedies

• 2010 – BP Deep Water Horizon• 11 fatalities

• Worst Oil Spill

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=db9T0XYKhrA&feature=related

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=tXnFpkJ9au8

Tragedies

• Significance• Tragedies were important in getting our nation’s

attention, because death on the job as a normal everyday event

• Example: in a single Pennsylvania county, 524 workers died in one year.

Tragedies

• It took a tragedy to get attention, since death on the job was a normal every-day event.

Improvements in Workplace Safety — United States, 1900–1999, MMWR, June 11, 1999 / Vol. 48 / No. 22

Tragedies

• Why do we view occupational incidents resulting in a tragedy differently?

Social Changes and other Factors

• Accidents Cheap up until 1900s

• Able to sue employer

• Who received compensation

• Average award

Social Changes and other Factors

• Progressive Era• What was it?

• Reforms to keep up with progress (Modernization)

• “Progressive Era” of the1890s through the 1920s.• OSH reforms• Muckrakers• http://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=h2ppaJwQ9UM&feature=related

Social Changes and other Factors

• Organized Labor• Labor unions

• For example, the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU), established 1900, pushed for comprehensive safety and workers’ compensation laws

• http://www.history.com/videos/history-of-labor-day#the-fight-to-end-child-labor

Social Changes and other Factors

• Worker’s Compensation

• What is it?

• Protections Afforded - Exclusivity• Worker

• Employer

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.

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

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

• http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4897690520976827985

Social Changes and other Factors• Are we there yet??

• Or have we changed location??

• http://www.democracynow.org/2011/3/25/100_years_after_triangle_fire_tragedy