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Alternative Title:Occupational Safety and Health Act
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Description:As we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), we have highlighted many of the NIOSH successes and accomplishments through the years. This is also a time for reflection and looking back at our history. The roots of U.S. occupational safety and health regulation date back to the late 19th century. It was all too common then for state labor bureaus to report on horrific industrial tragedies [MacLaury 1981]. The large loss of life due to events that were wholly preventable spurred a labor movement for social reform. In 1877, Massachusetts passed the first factory inspection law, requiring factory owners to place guards between workers and machinery and to provide protection on elevators and fire exits [Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor 1870–1916]. Other states followed suit, but not enough to stop hundreds of thousands of lives from being lost at work over the century that followed. The story of labor during the late 19th century up until the passage of the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act of 1970 is a troubling one, riddled with industrial accidents and tragedies.
So as not to forget the importance of what we do, or lose sight of the atrocities that occurred before the passage of the OSH Act and the creation of NIOSH and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), some of the early workplace tragedies are summarized below. Much of this information first appeared in the 2019 NIOSH Bibliography of Communication and Research Products.
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