Alice Hamilton

Alice Hamilton (1869-1970), a pioneer in the study of diseases of the workplace, a founder of industrial toxicology in the United States, and Harvard's first woman professor, led a long and interesting life. Always a consummate professional, she was also a prominent social reformer whose interest in the environmental causes of disease and in promoting equitable living conditions developed during her years as a resident at Jane Addams's Hull-House. This legendary figure now comes to life in an integrated work of biography and letters that reveals the personal as well as the professional woman. In documenting Hamilton's evolution from a childhood of privilege to a life of social advocacy, the volume opens a window on women reformers and their role in Progressive Era politics and reform. Because Hamilton was a keen observer and vivid writer, her letters--more than 100 are included here--bring an unmatched freshness and immediacy to a range of subjects, such as medical education; personal relationships and daily life at Hull House; the women's peace movement; struggles for the protection of workers' health; academic life at Harvard; politics and civil liberties during the cold war; and the process of growing old. Her story takes the reader from the Gilded Age to the Vietnam War.

A biography of Harvard’s first female faculty member—a pioneer in public health and worker safety. Born and raised in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Alice Hamilton graduated from medical school in 1893, and after completing internships at hospitals in Minneapolis and Boston, she rejected private practice and began dedicating herself to public health. Focusing on the investigation of the health and safety measures—or rather lack thereof—in the nation’s factories and mines during the second decade of the twentieth century, her discoveries led to factory and mine level-initiated reforms, and to city, state, and federal reform legislation. It also led to a greater recognition in the nation’s universities for formal academic programs in industrial and public health. In 1919, Harvard officials considered Hamilton the best-qualified person in the country to lead their effort in this area. The Education of Alice Hamilton is an inspiring story of a woman who lived a remarkable life at a time when women were not always welcome in medical circles—serving as personal physician to Jane Addams, founder of Hull House; traveling to the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany; researching the effects of mercury, carbon monoxide, benzene, and other substances on workers. She was sometimes ignored—such as when she warned of the dangers of lead in gasoline decades before it was eventually banned—but she persisted, and thanks in part to her groundbreaking work, Americans now enjoy the protection of OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Act.

Deceit and Denial details the attempts by the chemical and lead industries to deceive Americans about the dangers that their deadly products present to workers, the public, and consumers. Gerald Markowitz and David Rosner pursued evidence steadily and relentlessly, interviewed the important players, investigated untapped sources, and uncovered a bruising story of cynical and cruel disregard for health and human rights. This resulting exposé is full of startling revelations, provocative arguments, and disturbing conclusions--all based on remarkable research and information gleaned from secret industry documents. This book reveals for the first time the public relations campaign that the lead industry undertook to convince Americans to use its deadly product to paint walls, toys, furniture, and other objects in America's homes, despite a wealth of information that children were at risk for serious brain damage and death from ingesting this poison. This book highlights the immediate dangers ordinary citizens face because of the relentless failure of industrial polluters to warn, inform, and protect their workers and neighbors. It offers a historical analysis of how corporate control over scientific research has undermined the process of proving the links between toxic chemicals and disease. The authors also describe the wisdom, courage, and determination of workers and community members who continue to voice their concerns in spite of vicious opposition. Readable, pathbreaking, and revelatory, Deceit and Denial provides crucial answers to questions of dangerous environmental degradation, escalating corporate greed, and governmental disregard for its citizens' safety and health.

An anthology of period documents that illustrate important facets of Americans' changing relationship with nature.

Early in the twentieth century, states and courts began limiting the workplace hours of wage-earning women in order to protect them from fatigue and ill health. It was felt that a woman's role was to be a mother and that working too many hours in an often unhealthy and dangerous workplace created risks to the performance of that task. In the 1970s, many Fortune 500 companies began implementing "fetal protection policies" to prohibit women from working in areas deemed risky to reproductive capacity. Again, assumptions about motherhood were the driving force behind employment regulations. Women in Labor examines how gender norms affected the workplace health of men and women. Did the desire to protect women result in a safer workplace for all workers? Did it advance or hinder the status of women in the work-place? In answering these questions, Hepler describes a complex network of medical experts, state bureaucrats, business owners, social reformers, industrial engineers, workers, and feminists, many with overlapping interests and identities. This overlap often resulted in tradeoffs and unintended consequences. For instance, efforts promoting gender equality sometimes created equal risks for workers, whereas emphasizing social realities resulted in job discrimination. Reformists efforts to promote the important connection between the home and the industrial environment also allowed an employer to shirk responsibility for worker health. The issue of women in the workplace will remain crucial in the twenty-first century as workers worldwide struggle to create safer workplaces without sacrificing socioeconomic benefits or the health of women and their children.

Publishes in-depth articles on labor subjects, current labor statistics, information about current labor contracts, and book reviews.

Small things add up: trillions of dollars of products applying nanotechnology have been marketed to consumers promising new medicines, strong packaging to protect goods from contamination, stronger eyelash mascara and long-lasting lipstick, construction materials for housing, cheaper energy, and new drugs to fight cancer. Nanotechnology applications to consumer products represent a huge slice of daily economic life, heralding a revolutionary age for science and technology. How can the benefits of nanotechnology be realized while protecting public health? Global Health Impacts of Nanotechnology Law: A Tool for Stakeholder Engagement fills a major void in legal, scientific policy discourse about nanotechnology for people who are curious about nanoscience, bioethics, and law. The pioneering, plain-language text of Dr. Ilise L. Feitshans, international health law scholar and former international civil servant, enables readers to move comfortably across disciplines and explore how nanotechnology can reshape both commerce and public health to improve daily life worldwide.

Biology textbooks and books on the history of science generally give a limited picture of the roles women have played in the growth and development of the biological sciences, mentioning primarily the Nobel laureates. This book provides a definitive archival collection of essays on a larger group of women, profiling both their work and their lives. The volume includes 65 representative women from different countries and eras, and from as many branches of biological investigation as possible. In addition to biographical information and an evaluation of the woman's career and significance, each entry provides a full bibliographic listing of works by and about the subject. The volume includes entries on women who have gained recognition through attainment of advanced degrees despite familial and societal pressures, innovative research results, influence exerted in teaching and guidance of students, active participation and leadership in professional societies, extensive scholarly publication, participation on journal editorial boards, extensive field experience, and influence on public and political scientific policymaking. A woman was considered eligible for inclusion if she met several of these criteria. Providing a historical perspective, the book is limited to women who were born before 1930 or are deceased.