Huffington Post: For Labor Day: A Nod to a Woman Who Pushed for Worker Safety

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kate-kelly/for-labor-day-a-nod-to-a_b_273896.html

Kate Kelly

Author of six-volume history of medicine and Election Day
Posted: September 1, 2009 11:54 AM

Today Labor Day is primarily thought of as the long weekend that marks the end of summer. But as one might guess, Labor Day was started as an outgrowth of the labor movement. As labor unions gained in power, they wanted to establish an annual tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country. The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated in 1882 in New York City, and by 1884, additional cities throughout the United States were following New York City's lead. The first Monday in September soon became the "workingmen's holiday."

Honoring workers with a day dedicated to them is admirable, but keeping them safe is even more so, and industrial toxicology was a field that was just being explored when Labor Day was established. At this time -- the late 19th century -- women had very few options in the workplace, so it is all the more remarkable that a woman was behind the creation of a field trying to correct toxic work environments. Alice Hamilton (1869-1970) was the energy behind investigating workplace health hazards, and on a day that recognizes the value of American workers, Hamilton should be among those who are honored for drawing attention to the daily dangers to which workers are exposed.

Hamilton was one of five children born in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Because she was born to prominent parents she had the opportunity for a good education, and at that time, students could go from high school directly to medical school. After completing boarding school, Hamilton entered medical school and became fascinated by pathology. She decided to become a research scientist rather than to go into clinical practice, and in 1893, she graduated from the University of Michigan Medical School. Hamilton's sister was going to Europe to study the classics, and Hamilton decided to accompany her to continue her studies in bacteriology. The universities in Munich and Leipzich had never before admitted female students, so she was permitted to attend lectures in bacteriology and pathology "if she made herself inconspicuous." She then returned to the United States where she became a researcher at Johns Hopkins Medical School.

In 1897 she became professor of pathology at the short-lived Women's Medical School at Northwestern University. She was still in the Chicago area in 1902 when the city experienced a typhoid epidemic. Hamilton lived and worked among the poor, and she made a connection between poor sewage disposal and the role of flies in transmitting disease. Her information led to reorganization of the Chicago health department, and soon the governor of Illinois appointed her to the Illinois Commission on Occupational Diseases, and the group ran a groundbreaking study surveying industrial diseases in Illinois.

FULL story at link.