Alice Hamilton (1869-1970) was a pioneer in the fields of industrial toxicology and occupational health. Her work helped pave the way for significant improvements in workplace safety and for landmark legislation like the Occupational Safety and Health Act.
Alice Hamilton (1869-1970) was a pioneer in the fields of industrial toxicology and occupational health. Her work helped pave the way for significant improvements in workplace safety and for landmark legislation like the Occupational Safety and Health Act.
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This month, we’re highlighting women in health & wellness.
Today, we’re talking about a legendary American research scientist, doctor, and author. She was a pioneer in the fields of industrial toxicology and occupational health – basically, she made it safer for Americans to go to work each day. Her work helped pave the way for significant improvements in workplace safety and for landmark legislation like the Occupational Safety and Health Act.
Please welcome Alice Hamilton.
Alice Hamilton was born in New York City in 1869 to Montgomery and Gertrude Hamilton. She was the second of their four daughters.
When Alice was young, her family moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana. There, she grew up on a large estate, which was originally purchased for the family by her wealthy grandfather. Alice’s family was privileged, cultured, and somewhat isolated –all of the Hamilton children were homeschooled until they were old enough to attend finishing school.
While she was still a teenager, Alice decided that she wanted to become a doctor. But, she faced two major obstacles: First, she had to convince her conservative father that it was a valid career choice. Second, she had to overcome her minimal education in science, a subject her father found boring and didn’t stress during her years of homeschooling.
After studying physics and chemistry with a Fort Wayne high school teacher and taking biology and anatomy courses at a local medical school, Alice enrolled at the University of Michigan in 1892. She earned her medical degree a year later.
Following her graduation, Alice interned at the Northwestern Hospital for Women and Children in Minneapolis before moving to a more prestigious hospital outside of Boston.
Instead of becoming a practicing physician, Alice continued her science training. She traveled to Germany with her sister Edith to study pathology and bacteriology. Unfortunately, German universities refused to admit women and only eventually allowed the sisters to attend classes as long as they made every attempt to be “invisible” to the male students.
In 1896, Alice returned to the United States. Later that year, she was offered a position teaching pathology at the Women’s Medical School at Northwestern University in Chicago. This was an incredible opportunity for Alice not only because it was a great job for a female pathologist at the time, but also because it gave her the opportunity to live at Hull-House, the most famous settlement house in the United States.
Founded by Jane Addams, Hull-House was a settlement house: Its mission was to bring wealthy young reformers in contact with immigrants and poor people, through living in close proximity. As Alice herself noted, “Life in a settlement does several things to you. Among others, it teaches you that education and culture have little to do with real wisdom, the wisdom that comes from life experiences.”
As Alice lived side by side with poor community residents, she became increasingly aware of and interested in the myriad problems facing workers, particularly occupational illnesses and injuries.
The study of “industrial medicine” had gained some interest in Europe following the industrial revolution. But it was still in its infancy in the United States. Alice was determined to change that, and she began advocating for increased attention. She also published her first article on occupational medicine in 1908.
Two years later, Alice was appointed to the newly-formed Occupational Disease Commission of Illinois, the first investigative body of its kind. The Commission was charged with studying industrial illness in the state, with a particular focus on high mortality rates related to industrial poisoning. Alice served as the managing director of the study, and focused her attention on the lead industry.
She would face off with factory owners who insisted that their workers – mostly immigrants – were alcoholics, or that their factories couldn’t possibly be poisoning their workers. And yet, she would see the conditions firsthand – breathing in lead dust and fumes from oxide furnaces. She would also note that the symptoms were not possibly caused by drinking.
To prove that lead poisoning took place Alice needed to search through medical records, track down the worker and interview his wife, and determine where he had been working. But her tireless work ended in reforms. One example: the National Lead Company in Illinois re-engineered their factories and even employed a medical department to monitor the workers’ health.
As interest in occupational health increased across the country, Alice spent the next decade investigating a variety of issues for a slew of other state and federal health committees and investigative bodies. She had become the country’s leading authority on lead poisoning and one of only a handful of experts on occupational illnesses.
Alice was even commissioned by the U.S. Department of Commerce to undertake a country-wide survey similar to the one she worked on in Illinois. Though she received basically no support and no salary, she completed the study and the government agreed to buy her final report.
This was just the first of many studies and reports Alice would complete for the federal government over the years illustrating the many occupational hazards faced by workers in dangerous trades. Some of her best-known research includes her studies on carbon monoxide poisoning among American steelworkers, mercury poisoning of hatmakers, the dangers of Arizona copper mines, and a debilitating hand condition related to working with jackhammers. Her work was instrumental in bringing about landmark changes in state and federal industrial safety laws.
In 1919, Alice was hired as an assistant professor in the Harvard University Medical School’s newly formed Department of Industrial Medicine. This made her the first woman to join the Harvard faculty, and the move was greeted with national headlines. A New York Tribune article read “A Woman on Harvard Faculty—The Last Citadel Has Fallen—The Sex Has Come Into Its Own.” Nevertheless, Alice faced sexism and other obstacles because of her gender while at Harvard.
From 1924-1930, Alice served as the first and only woman member of the League of Nations Health Committee. This was an incredibly prestigious appointment and speaks to the level of international fame that Alice had gained by this point in her career.
During this period, Alice wrote the first American textbook on the subject of industrial poisons and a related textbook on industrial toxicology that became a standard in the field. She also became a major critic of adding tetraethyl lead to gasoline.
In 1935, Alice retired from teaching at Harvard, though she maintained emeritus status and took a position as a medical consultant with the U.S. Division of Labor Standards. Her final field survey, conducted when she was in her 60s, brought about reform in the viscose rayon industry.
Alice died of a stroke at her Connecticut home on September 22, 1970. She was 101 years old.
Just three months after her death, the U.S. Congress passed the landmark Occupational Safety and Health Act to improve workplace safety in the United States.
All month, we’re honoring incredible women in Health & Wellness.
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