Alice Hamilton, M.D., was "the first American physician to devote her life to the practice of industrial medicine." Born into a prominent family of Fort Wayne, Indiana, she graduated from medical school at the University of Michigan in 1893.
She later moved into Jane Addams' Hull House, and there provided a well-baby clinic for residents of the settlement's neighborhood.
Seeing the problems of poor working class families at close range, her compassion and professional interest were inexorably drawn to the many victims of work-related diseases and injuries.
She pioneered occupational epidemiology and industrial hygiene in the United States beginning with investigations of lead poisoning among enamellers of bathtubs.
Her findings were so scientifically persuasive, that they caused sweeping reforms, both voluntary and regulatory, to reduce occupational exposure to lead.
In 1919, Dr. Hamilton was appointed assistant professor of industrial medicine at Harvard Medical School, becoming the first woman on the faculty of Harvard University.
A statue of Alice Hamilton sits in Headwaters Park just off downtown of her hometown Fort Wayne, Indiana.
https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=16956
For more on Dr. Hamilton's life and work, see the NIOSH website at
https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/awards/hamilton/hamhist.html
Her autobiography, Exploring The Dangerous Trades The Autobiography, published in 1943 is available for reading and downloading from the Internet https://ia800302.us.archive.org/17/items/exploringthedang011737mbp/exploringthedang011737mbp.pdf
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Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.
