Alice Hamilton

Elle Noller

12/16/2014

Mr. Ward

F Block

I pledge: EN

Alice Hamilton

            Before Hamilton made her discoveries, in the early 1900s, high levels of lead were very life threatening to people and can cause seizures, unconsciousness, and death for children. Adult problems from lead poisoning were high blood pressure, digestive issues, nerve disorders, memory and concentration problems, muscle and joint pain. Lead poisoning came from paint, imported candies, art supplies, stained glass, contaminated soil, jewelry, dishware, drinking water, lunch boxes, and many more items. During these early 1900s, more than a million people died a year from lead poisoning.

            During the early 1900s, workers had low wages and dangerous working conditions. The dangers of working in a factory included the industrial accidents and illnesses. Workers had to deal with and handle poisonous chemicals, toxic dust and fumes, and poisons all over their clothing. In 1908, Alice Hamilton was appointed by the governor of Illinois to the Illinois Commission on Occupational Diseases. The commission decided to do a broad survey of industrially related diseases, which was ground breaking story that Hamilton agreed to oversee. In 1910, Alice Hamilton was appointed to head a survey on industrial illness. Hamilton mostly studied lead, which is the most used industrial poison. She went to various factories, looked at hospital records, and talked to labor leaders and druggists to uncover instances of lead poisoning. She found more than seventy industrial processes that workers were exposed to lead poisoning.

            Then in 1911 to 1920, Hamilton became a special investigator for the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which was where she performed a landmark study. That study was on the manufacture of white lead and lead oxide, substances that were used as pigments in the paint industry. Hamilton made some recommendations for safer working conditions. Hamilton played a big role in turning the attention of the industries and government to the poisonous effects of aniline dyes, carbon monoxide, mercury, tetraethyl lead, radium, benzene, chemicals in storage batteries, and carbon disulfide and hydrogen sulfide gases created in the manufacture of viscose rayon. She did this to keep the harmful toxics away from the general population and especially the children. She studied effects of manufacturing explosives on people. Hamilton investigated the poisonous effects of manufacturing explosives on workers, which was a study undertaken during World War I.

                        As a result, in 1911 an occupational disease law was passed and it was requiring employers to implement safety procedures limiting workers’ exposure to dangerous chemical. Alice Hamilton helped improved work conditions and as this law was enforced the death rate of people dying from lead poisoning got lower and lower as time went by. She probably saved many lives by doing what she did and helped bring awareness to people about this huge problem that needed to be fixed.

Graph of the percentage of the people that died in the 1900s from certain diseases.

Graph of how many people died in the early 1900s from diseases.

Work Cited

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