Interesting History of Health and Safety
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You have probably all see the famous photograph “Lunch Atop A Skyscraper” taken taken in 1932 by Charles C. Ebbets during construction of the RCA Building (renamed as the GE Building in 1986) at Rockefeller Center. It was recently recreated (without management approval) at the newly-built Heron Building in London.
Graham Dent recently brought this interesting history of health and safety to my attention on his Linkedin page. It was originally published by www.testcountry.com. There seems to be a significant focus on Health as opposed to Safety. If you know of any other significant events in the history of Health and Safety please share
Occupational health and safety is protecting the health, safety, and welfare of people engaged in employment or any type of work. The goal is to provide programs that see to it that institutions and organizations provide a safe and healthy workplace environment for everyone.
It is important to know the history and to see where it all started, and how well the programs improved from the time it all began.
- 400 BC – Hippocrates found that there were toxic effects caused by lead among workers in the mining industry. This gave way to rules relating to the environment and workers’ health.
- 100 AD – Pliny the Elder, a Roman scholar, discovered the health risk of workers handling zinc and sulphur, which lead him to create a type of face mask made from animal bladder to safeguard workers from exposure to dust and lead fumes.
- 200 – Greek physician Galen discovered the accurate pathology of lead poisoning, and found the health risk of copper miners due to acid mists.
- 1200 – 1500 – Associations started helping sick workers and their families
- 1556 – German scholar Agricola introduced the science of industrial hygiene and described the diseases of miners and advised preventive measures.
- 1700 – Bernadino Ramazzini, known as the father of industrial medicine, published the first comprehensive book on occupational health. The book contained accurate descriptions of occupational diseases during his time. He also suggested that occupational diseases should be studied in work areas and not in hospital wards.
- 1743 – Ulrich Ellenborg published an occupational diseases and injuries pamphlet about gold miners, which explained the toxicity of nitric acid, carbon monoxide, mercury and lead.
- 1774 – Percival Potts established a link between soot and nasal, and scrotal, cancer. This is the first ever link between work environments and cancer.
- 1833 – the first cross-country legislation in the field of industrial safety was passed and known as the English Factory Acts.
- 1845 – Friedrich Engels gave a detailed account of the impacts of industrialization to the health of male and female factory workers.
- 1898 – the hazardous effects of asbestos were reported in the Factory Inspector’s report.
- 1946 – the World Health Organization defined Occupational Health as, “the state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity.”
- 1961 and 1963 – Several Acts were passed that were concerned with occupational safety like the Factories Act, Offices Shops, and Railway Premises Act.
- 1972 – 1974 – A report of the Committee of Safety and Health at Work about occupational health led the passing of Health and Safety at Work Act and the current regulatory framework.
Without scientific discovery and analysis, we might still be working in hazardous areas without the necessary safety equipment that we use today.
Some have likened today’s safety Legislation, which still focuses somewhat on punitive motivation for compliance, to the laws laid down by “Hammurabi the Law Giver” (1728 BC – 1686 BC). Hammurabi was king of the city-state of Babylon, and inherited the power from his father in 1792 BC – he carved his 292 laws onto giant tablets and displayed them prominently in public (although most back then were illiterate).
Significant laws in Hammurabi’s code
- If someone cuts down a tree on someone else’s land, he will pay for it.
- If someone is careless when watering his fields, and he floods someone else’s by accident, he will pay for the grain he has ruined.
- If a man wants to throw his son out of the house, he has to go before a judge and say, “I don’t want my son to live in my house any more.” The judge will find out the reasons. If the reasons are not good, the man can’t throw his son out.
- If the son has done some great evil to his father, his father must forgive him the first time. But if he has done something evil twice, his father can throw him out.
- If a thief steals a cow, a sheep, a donkey, a pig, or a goat, he will pay ten times what it is worth. If he doesn’t have any money to pay with, he will be put to death.
- An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. If a man puts out the eye of another man, put his own eye out. If he knocks out another man’s tooth, knock out his own tooth. If he breaks another man’s bone, break his own bone.
- If a doctor operates a patient and the patient dies, the doctor’s hand will be cut off.
- If a builder builds a house, and that house collapses and kills the owner’s son, the builder’s son will be put to death.
- If a robber is caught breaking a hole into the house so that he can get in and steal, he will be put to death in front of that hole.
- If a son strike his own father, his hands shall be cut off.
Do you have any thoughts? Please share them below