By the middle of the 19^th century, the Industrial Revolution was in full swing. As the pistons pumped and furnaces fumed, however, often lost in the clang of progress was the plight of the workers within the new factories, mills and workshops. Employers and governments showed little regard for the often-atrocious working conditions in which laborers were forced to toil. Consider:

• 12- to 14-hour workdays were common.
• Wages were low, often at mere subsistence levels. Women typically earned only half of what men did.
• Children were frequently employed. Part of their duties included cleaning and servicing machinery (often while it was still running) that had tight spaces that only they could fit into.
• Severe punishments were meted out, often to children, who were sometimes hung in baskets from factory roofs and often doused with water to keep them awake. Strapping was common, and some children even had their ears

Human societies have endeavored to ensure the health and safety of their workers for centuries. Doctors in ancient Greece raised concerns over lead and other dangerous materials to which miners were routinely exposed. Later, the Roman senator Pliny the Elder alerted citizens to the dangers of sulfur and zinc. He recommended miners cover their mouths and noses with animal bladders – one of the first examples of industrial respiratory protection.

In the 15^th Century, Austrian physician Ulrich Ellenbog published a treatise on the dangers that mercury and asbestos posed to laborers and the correlation of these and other metals with lung disease.

About 1700, Italian physician Bernardo Ramazzini – today known as the Father of Occupational Medicine – published his findings on the topic of occupational disease. He famously urged other doctors to ask their patients “What is your trade?”, drawing a definite link between the typical conditions of … Read more...