IEN 420: Environmental &

Safety Engineering
Spring 2021-2022
 IEN 420: Safety and Health
Movement, Then and Now
Spring 2021-2022
Lecture 1
Primary reference textbooks:
Goetsch D. L. “Occupational Safety and Health for Technologists, Engineers, and Managers” (9th Edition)

College of Engineering Dr. Hadi Jaber

Industrial Engineering Program Assistant Professor of Industrial Engineering and Management
 The Safety and Health Movement

▪ The safety movement in the United States has developed steadily since the early 1900s.
▪ In 1907, more than 3,200 people were killed in mining accidents.
▪ Legislation, precedent, and public opinion all favored management.
▪ There were few protections for workers’ safety.
▪ Working conditions for industrial employees today have improved significantly.
▪ Chance of worker death in an industrial accident is less than half of what it was 60 years
ago.
 Outline
▪ Developments Before the Industrial Revolution
▪ Milestones in the Safety Movement
▪ Tragedies That Have Changed the Safety Movement
▪ Role of Organized Labor
▪ Role of Specific Health Problems
▪ Development of Accident Prevention Programs
▪ Development of Safety Organizations
▪ Safety and Health Movement Today
▪ Integrated Approach to Safety and Health
▪ New Materials, New Processes, and New Problems
▪ Rapid Growth in the Profession
▪ Return on Investment in Safety and Health Management
 Developments before the Industrial Revolution
▪ Understanding the past can help safety & health professionals examine the
present and future with a sense of perspective and continuity.
▪ Modern developments in health & safety are part of the long continuum of
developments.
▪ Babylonians: Circa 2000 BC, Code of Hammurabi. Significance
of the code from the
perspective of safety & health are clauses dealing with injuries. Allowable fees
for physicians & monetary damages assessed against those who injured others.
▪ Egyptian civilization: Much labor was provided by slaves & slaves were not treated well—unless it suited
the needs of Egyptian taskmasters. Rameses II created an industrial medical service to care for the
workers. They were required to bathe daily in the Nile and given regular medical examinations, & sick
workers isolated.
▪ Romans: Vitally concerned with safety & health, as seen from construction projects. Aqueducts, sewerage
systems, public baths, latrines, and well-ventilated houses.
 Developments before the Industrial
Revolution

▪ In 1567, Philippus Aureolus produced a treatise on the pulmonary diseases of

miners. Covered diseases of smelter workers & metallurgists. Diseases associated
with handling/exposure to mercury.
▪ Same time, Georgius Agricola published De Re Metallica, emphasizing need for
ventilation in mines, showing devices to bring fresh air into mines.
▪ The eighteenth century, Bernardino Ramazzini, who wrote Discourse on the
Diseases of Workers. He drew conclusive parallels between diseases suffered by
workers and their occupations.
 Developments before the Industrial
Revolution
▪ The Industrial Revolution changed forever the methods of producing goods,
summarized as:
▪ Introduction of new methods for converting raw materials.
▪ Organization/specialization of work, resulting in a division of labor.
▪ Steam power increased markedly the potential for life-threatening injuries, as did machines.
▪ The new methods used for converting raw materials also introduced new risks of injuries and diseases.

▪ These changes necessitated a greater focusing of attention on the safety and health
of workers.
▪ Steam power increased markedly the potential for life-threatening injuries, as did machines.
▪ The new methods used for converting raw materials also introduced new risks of injuries and diseases.
▪ Specialization, by increasing the likelihood of boredom and inattentiveness, also made the workplace a more
dangerous environment.
Figure 1.1 Milestones in
the Safety Movement
from the text book

8
 Milestones in the Safety
Movement
▪ The safety movement traces its roots to England.
▪ In the Industrial Revolution, child labor in factories was common.
Hours were long, work hard, and conditions often unhealthy &
unsafe.
▪ After an outbreak of fever among children working in their cotton
mills, people of Manchester, England, demanded better factory
working conditions.
▪ In 1802 the Health & Morals of Apprentices Act passed.
▪ Marked the beginning of governmental involvement in workplace
safety.
 Milestones in the Safety
Movement
▪ When the industrial sector began to grow in the US, hazardous
working conditions were commonplace.
▪ Factory inspection began in Massachusetts in 1867.
▪ In 1868, the first barrier safeguard was patented.
▪ In 1869, the Pennsylvania legislature passed a mine safety law requiring two exits from
all mines.
▪ The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) was started in 1869.
▪ In 1877, the Massachusetts legislature passed a law requiring safeguards for
hazardous machinery.
▪ 1877 also saw passage of the Employer’s Liability Law.
▪ Establishing potential for employer liability in workplace accidents.
 Milestones in the Safety
Movement
▪ In 1892, the first recorded safety program was established in a Joliet, Illinois,
steel plant. In response to a scare caused when a flywheel exploded. Following the
explosion, a committee of managers formed to investigate and make
recommendations. Used as the basis for development of a safety program
considered to be the first in American industry.
▪ Around 1900, Frederick Taylor began studying efficiency in manufacturing, and
drew a connection between lost personnel time & management policies and
procedures.
▪ Although safety was not a major focus of his work, Taylor did draw a connection between lost personnel time
and management policies and procedures.
▪ This connection between safety and management represented a major step toward broad-based safety
consciousness.
 Milestones in the Safety
Movement
▪ In 1907, the U.S. Dept. of the Interior created the Bureau of Mines to investigate
accidents, examine health hazards, and make recommendations for improvements.
▪ In 1908 an early form of workers’ compensation was introduced in the United
States. Workers’ compensation actually had its beginnings in Germany, and soon
spread through Europe. Workers’ compensation made great strides in the US when
Wisconsin passed the first effective workers’ compensation law in 1911. Today, all 50
states have some form of workers’ compensation.
▪ The Association of Iron and Steel Electrical Engineers (AISEE), formed in the early
1900s, pressed for a national conference on safety. The first meeting of the
Cooperative Safety Congress (CSC) took place in Milwaukee in 1912.
▪ A year after the initial meeting of the CSC, the National Council of Industrial
Safety (NCIS) was established in Chicago. In 1915, this organization changed its
name to the National Safety Council, now the premier safety organization in the
United States.
 Milestones in the Safety Movement
▪ From 1918 through the 1950s, the federal government encouraged contractors to implement &
maintain a safe work environment.
▪ Industry in the US arrived at two critical conclusions
▪ There is a definite connection between quality & safety.
▪ Off-the-job accidents have a negative impact on productivity.

▪ The 1960s saw the passage of a flurry of legislation promoting workplace safety.
▪ The Service Contract Act
▪ The Federal Metal & Nonmetallic Mine Safety Act.
▪ The Federal Coal Mine and Safety Act
▪ The Contract Workers and Safety Standards Act.

▪ These laws applied to a limited audience of workers, and the injury & death toll due to industrial
mishaps was still too high.
▪ In the late 1960s, more than 14,000 employees were killed annually in connection with their
jobs.
 Milestones in the Safety Movement
▪ Work injury rates were taking an upward swing due to a limited audience of workers.
▪ That was the primary reasons for passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act
(OSH Act) of 1970 and the Federal Mine Safety Act of 1977.
▪ Superfund Amendments & Reauthorization Act of 1986, and the Amended Clean Air Act
in 1990 were major pieces of environmental legislation.
▪ The concept of Total Safety Management (TSM) was introduced in 1996 to help safety
professionals in organizations using Total Quality Management (TQM) philosophy and/or
ISO 9000 registration.
▪ In 2000, U.S. firms began to pursue ISO 14000.
▪ Workplace terrorism became an important issue in 2003.
▪ In 2007 special safety needs of older people who reentered the workforce became an
issue for safety professionals.
▪ In 2010, organizations began to concern themselves with off-the-job safety as a critical
part of their overall safety and health plan.
Tragedies That Have Changed the Safety Movement
▪ Safety & health tragedies in the workplace greatly accelerated the pace of the
safety movement in the US.
▪ Hawk’s Nest Tragedy - A company contracted to drill a passage through a
mountain in the Hawk’s Nest region of West Virginia. Workers spent as many as
10 hours per day breathing dust created by drilling and blasting. This mountain
had an unusually high silica content. Silicosis normally takes 10 to 30 years to
show up. Hawk’s Nest workers began dying in as little as a year. By the time the
project was completed, hundreds had died.
▪ This tragedy & resulting public outcry led a group of companies to form the Air
Hygiene Foundation to research & develop standards for work in dusty areas.
▪ The US Department of Labor helped make silicosis a compensable disease in
most states.
▪ Approximately 1 million workers in the US are still exposed to silica every year.
▪ 250 people die annually from silicosis.
 Tragedies That Have Changed the Safety
Movement
▪ Asbestos Menace - in 1964, Dr. Irving J. Selikoff told a conference on biological
effects of asbestos that the widely used material was killing workers. Asbestos was
once considered a “miracle” fiber. At the time of Selikoff’s findings, asbestos was
one of the most widely used materials in the US. Found in homes, schools, offices,
factories, ships, and even in the filters of cigarettes.
▪ This conference changed how Americans viewed not just asbestos, but workplace
hazards in general. Selikoff was the first to link asbestos to lung cancer and
respiratory diseases.
▪ Selikoff continued to study the effects of asbestos exposure from 1967 to 1986. In
the 1970s-80s, asbestos became a controlled material. Regulations governing use,
standards for exposure were established, and asbestos-related lawsuits changed
how industry dealt with this tragic material.
Tragedies That Have Changed the Safety Movement
▪ Bhopal Tragedy - On Dec. 3, 1984, over 40 tons of methyl isocyanate (MIC) &
other gases, including hydrogen cyanide, leaked into north Bhopal, India. Killing
more than 3,000 people in its aftermath. It was discovered the PPE that could have
halted impending disaster was not in full working order. The International Medical
Commission found that as many as 50,000 people were exposed, and may still
suffer disability as a result. This disaster shocked the world.
▪ Union Carbide Corporation, owner of the plant, was accused of many things,
including:
▪ Criminal negligence.
▪ Corporate prejudice - choosing poverty-stricken Bhopal, on the assumption few would care if anything went
wrong.
▪ Avoidance - putting its plant in Bhopal to avoid stricter US safety & health standards.

▪ In February 1989, India’s Supreme Court ordered Union Carbide India Ltd., to pay
$470 million in compensatory damages. Funds were paid to the Indian government
to be used to compensate the victims.
 Tragedies That Have Changed the Safety
Movement
▪ Factory Fire in Bangladesh- In November 2012, a garment-factory fire in
Bangladesh killed 112 employees. The magnitude of the tragedy was enhanced
when it was discovered that the factory produced garments for sell in several major
retail outlets in the United States.
▪ Fire inspectors suspect that an electrical short circuit caused the blaze, which
spread quickly because of the flammable nature of material used to produce T-
shirts in the factory.
▪ There were complaints that well-known retailers in the U.S, and elsewhere in the
western world were partially culpable in the tragedy because there was evidence
that they knew of the unsafe conditions beforehand.
▪ A follow-up investigation revealed that 100 workers had been burned to death
inside the factory while another 12 jumped to their deaths to escape the flames.
 Role of Organized Labor
▪ Organized labor has played a crucial role in the development of the safety
movement in the US. Many of the earliest safety developments were the result of
long, hard-fought battles by organized labor. Union involvement actually slowed
development of the safety movement. Unions allowed demands for safer working
conditions to become entangled with their demands for better wages. As a result,
they met with resistance from management.
▪ A most important contribution of organized labor to the safety movement was their work to overturn anti-labor
laws relating to safety in the workplace. These laws;
▪ The fellow servant rule held that employers were not liable for workplace
injuries resulting from negligence of other employees.
▪ Contributory negligence absolved an employer if the actions of employees
contributed to their own injuries.
▪ Assumption of risk was based on the theory that people who accept a job
assume the risks that go with it.
▪ Organized labor played a crucial role in bringing deplorable working conditions to public attention. Awareness &
outrage eventually led to employer-biased laws being overturned in all states except one. In New Hampshire, the
fellow servant rule still applies.
 Role of Specific Health Problems
▪ Specific health problems tied to workplace hazards have played significant roles in
the development of the modern safety and health movement.
▪ Lung disease in coal miners was a major problem in the 1800s, particularly in
Great Britain, where much of the Western world’s coal was mined at the time.
Anthrocosis, or the black spit, persisted from the early 1800s, when first identified,
until about 1875. It was finally eliminated by safety & health measures. By the early
1940s, British scientists were using the term coal-miner’s pneumoconiosis to
describe a disease suffered by many miners.
▪ An West Virginia coal mine explosion that killed 78 miners focused attention on
mining health & safety. Congress passes Coal Mine Health & Safety Act, 1969.
Amended 1977/78 to broaden scope of coverage.
▪ Congress held hearings on silicosis in 1936, and business, industry & government
representatives attended the National Silicosis Conference. Finding that silica dust
particulates did cause silicosis.
 Role of Specific Health Problems

▪ Mercury poisoning was first noticed among citizens of a Japanese fishing village in
the early 1930s. A chemical plant near the village Minamata periodically dumped
methyl mercury into the bay that was the village’s primary source of food. The citizens
ingested hazardous dosages of mercury every time they ate fish from the bay.
▪ Mercury poisoning became an issue in the US after a 1940s study on New York’s
hat-making industry. Many workers displayed the same types of symptoms as the
citizens of Minamata, Japan. A study linked mercury nitrate used in hat production.
▪ As a result, use of this hazardous chemical in the hat-making industry was stopped. A
suitable substitute—hydrogen peroxide—was found.
 Role of Specific Health Problems
▪ By the time it was determined that asbestos is a hazardous material, the fibers of which can
cause asbestosis or lung cancer (mesothelioma), thousands of buildings contained the
substance. As these buildings began to age, the asbestos— particularly that used to insulate
pipes—breaks down. As asbestos breaks down, it releases dangerous microscopic fibers into
the air. The fibers are so hazardous that removing asbestos from old buildings has become a
highly specialized task requiring special equipment & training.
▪ More recently, concern over the potential effects of bloodborne pathogens in the workplace
has had a significant impact on the safety and health movement. Diseases such as Acquired
Immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) and pathogens such as Human Immunodeficiency Virus
(HIV) and Hepatitis B (HBV) have caused changes to how safety and health professionals
respond to medical emergencies and injuries in which blood and other bodily fluids may be
present.
▪ Concern over the potential effects of bloodborne pathogens has introduced a whole new set
of precautions as well as fears—some rational and some irrational—into the realm of
workplace safety. Chapter 20 is devoted to the concept of bloodborne pathogens as it relates
to workplace safety.
 Development of Accident Prevention
Programs
▪ Widely used accident prevention techniques include:
▪ Failure minimization, fail-safe designs.
▪ Isolation, lockouts, screening.
▪ Personal protective equipment.
▪ Redundancy, timed replacements, etc.

▪ Individual components of broader safety programs have evolved since the late
1800s.
▪ Early employers had little concern for worker safety. And little incentive to be concerned.
▪ Between World War I & World War II, industry discovered the connection between quality & safety.
▪ World War II labor shortages created a greater openness toward giving safety the serious consideration
it deserved.
Development of Accident Prevention Programs
▪ Industry began to realize:
▪ Improved engineering could prevent accidents.
▪ Employees were willing to learn and accept established safety rules, which could
be enforced.
▪ Financial savings from safety improvement could be reaped by savings in
compensation and medical bills.

▪ Early safety programs were based on the three E’s of safety:

▪ Engineering: Engineering aspects of a safety program involve design
improvements to both product & process. Manufacturing processes can be
engineered to decrease potential hazards associated with them.
▪ Education: Education ensures that employees know how to work safely, why it
is important to do so, and that safety is expected by management.
▪ Enforcement: Enforcement involves making sure employees abide by safety
policies, rules, regulations, practices, and procedures. Supervisors & fellow
employees play a key role.
Development of Safety Organizations

▪ Numerous organizations are devoted in full, or at least in part, to

promotion of safety & health in the workplace.
▪ Figure 1.3 from the text book are organizations concerned with workplace safety as part
of their missions.
▪ Figure 1.4 from the text book are Several governmental agencies & two related
organizations concerned with safety and health. These lists are extensive now, but this
has not always been the case.
 Development of Safety Organizations
FIGURE 1–3 Organizations concerned with workplace
safety.

FIGURE 1–4 Government agencies and other organizations concerned with workplace safety.
 Development of Safety Organizations
▪ Safety organizations in the US had humble beginnings—the grandfather of them all is
the NSC.
▪ The Association of Iron & Steel Electrical Engineers called for a national industrial safety conference In 1911. The
first Cooperative Safety Congress met in Milwaukee in 1912.
▪ In New York City, the National Council of Industrial Safety was formed in 1913, changed to the National Safety
Council at the 1915 meeting. Today, the NSC is the largest organization in the US devoted solely to safety &
health practices/procedures.

▪ The Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) is the government’s

administrative arm for the Occupational Safety & Health Act of 1970. OSHA
sets/revokes safety & health standards, conducts inspections, investigates problems…
▪ Issues citations & assesses penalties.
▪ Petitions courts to take action against unsafe employers.
▪ Provides safety training & injury prevention consultation.
▪ Maintains a database of health and safety statistics.
 Development of Safety Organizations

▪ The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) is part
of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the
Department of Health and Human Services.
▪ NIOSH is required to publish annually a comprehensive list of all known toxic substances.
▪ NIOSH will also provide on-site tests of potentially toxic substances so that companies know what
they are handling and what precautions to take.
 Safety and Health Movement Today
▪ Today, there is widespread understanding of the importance of providing a safe &
healthy workplace.
▪ After World War II, practitioners of occupational health & safety began to see the
need for cooperative efforts.
▪ Early, vocal proponent of the cooperative/integrated approach was H.G.Dyktor, who
advocated:
▪ Learn more by sharing knowledge about workplace health problems, particularly those caused by
toxic substances.
▪ Provide a greater level of expertise in evaluating health and safety problems.
▪ Provide a broad database that can be used to compare health and safety problems experienced by
different companies in the same industry.
▪ Encourage accident prevention.
▪ Make employee health and safety a high priority.

▪ The safety and health movement today is characterized by

professionalization and integration.
 Integrated Approach to Safety and Health
▪ The integrated approach involves practitioners working together to predict, control, identify, and correct
safety and health problems.
▪ OSHA reinforces the integrated approach by requiring companies to have a plan for:
▪ Providing appropriate medical treatment for injured or ill workers.
▪ Regularly examining workers who are exposed to toxic substances.
▪ Having a qualified first-aid person available during all working hours.

▪ Larger companies often maintain a staff of safety & health professionals. Smaller companies may
contract out fulfillment of these requirements.
▪ Health & safety staff in a modern industrial company may include the following positions:
▪ Industrial hygiene chemist and/or engineer - companies that use toxic substances may employ industrial
hygiene chemists to test work environment & people working in it.
▪ Radiation control specialist - monitor radiation levels to which workers may be exposed, test for levels of
exposure, respond to radiation accidents, develop company-wide plans for handling radiation accidents.
▪ Industrial safety engineer or manager - safety & health generalists with specialized education and training.
 New Materials, New Processes, and New
Problems
▪ The materials out of which products are made have become increasingly complex and
exotic.
▪ Carbon steels, cast steels, cast irons, tungsten, molybdenum, lead, tin, zinc, and powdered metals. Each of
these metals requires its own specialized processes.

▪ Nonmetals are more numerous & more complex, with their own potential hazards to
the workplace
▪ Plastics, plastic alloys and blends, advanced composites.
▪ Fibrous materials, elastomers, and ceramics.

▪ Modern industrial processes are also becoming more complex—as they are
automated, potential hazards associated with them often increase.
 Rapid Growth in the Profession

▪ Complexities of the modern workplace have made safety and health a growing
profession.
▪ Associate & baccalaureate degree programs in industrial technology typically include industrial safety courses.

▪ Some engineering degree programs have safety & health tracks, and several
colleges and universities offer full degrees in occupational safety & health.
▪ More large companies are employing safety & health professionals and more small
companies are assigning these duties to existing employees.
 ROI in Safety and Health
Management
▪ Businesses tend to focus on the bottom line. Consequently, executives
constantly pressure to managers in their organizations—including
safety and health professionals—to document their department’s return
on investment or ROI.
▪ In other words, executives want to know that safety is not just about
preventing losses, it can also help the organization financially.
▪ A study by a large construction firm in the United Kingdom, the Foster
Wheeler, showed a high correlation (63 percent) between safety and
productivity.
 Thank You

IEN 420: Environmental & Safety Engineering

Spring 2021-2022

College of Engineering Dr. Hadi Jaber

Industrial Engineering Program Assistant Professor of Industrial Engineering and Management