title: "Educate the Individual... to a Sane Appreciation of the Risk" A History of Industry's Responsibility to Warn of Job Dangers Before the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
abstract: The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 and the Workers Right to Know laws later in that decade were signature moments in the history of occupational safety and health. We have examined how and why industry leaders came to accept that it was the obligation of business to provide information about the dangers to health of the materials that workers encountered. Informing workers about the hazards of the job had plagued labor-management relations and fed labor disputes, strikes, and even pitched battles during the turn of the century decades. Industry's rhetorical embrace of the responsibility to inform was part of its argument that government regulation of the workplace was not necessary because private corporations were doing it.
authors.affiliation: David Rosner is with the Center for the History and Ethics of Public Health, Department of Sociomedical Sciences, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and the Department of History, Columbia University, New York, NY. Gerald Markowitz is with the departments of History and Interdisciplinary Studies, John Jay College and Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York, NY, and the Department of Sociomedical Sciences, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Rosner
authors.affiliation: David Rosner is with the Center for the History and Ethics of Public Health, Department of Sociomedical Sciences, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and the Department of History, Columbia University, New York, NY. Gerald Markowitz is with the departments of History and Interdisciplinary Studies, John Jay College and Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York, NY, and the Department of Sociomedical Sciences, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.
authors.forename: Gerald
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Markowitz
mesh_terms: D022126:Access to Information / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D003098:Collective Bargaining / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D015386:Hazardous Substances / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000266:history*; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D007750:Labor Unions / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D016273:Occupational Exposure / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D016272:Occupational Health / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D014481:United States; D014489:United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence
chemical_list: D015386:Hazardous Substances