A somewhat recent movie that you might have enjoyed as I did is Enola Holmes 2. In this movie there was a worker union fighting against the obscene working conditions. Of course, this was based off of the actual Match girl strikes in Britain. However, it also does reflect the many worker unions in the United States in the early 1900s, which is when the movie was set.
A photomechanical reproduction of the Matchgirls Strike. Credit: SSPL / Getty Images
These strikes occurred at this time as it was when Occupational Health was introduced into the United States by Dr. Alice Hamilton. She solved many of our work problems, one notably similar to the issue in the movie.
The Lead Crises of the 1920s, where countless factories exposed their workers to lead. This was not seen as a bad thing as there had been no significant studies on the effects of lead exposure. That was until Dr. Alice Hamilton took it upon herself.
She was working as a medical investigator and noticed the outbreak in deaths. From there she studied the connections between them and visited hospitals and homes. In the end she was able to conclude that the connection was the workers' exposure to lead in factories.
As a result of these findings many laws were produced to keep this crisis from continuing. This work also set the ground for many other Occupational Health investigations and laws. Which are now key factors of Public Health.
Fortunately, throughout the 1900s great scientists were able to identify many physical problems with the work industry. So now legal work environments are much safer in the US. However, we are now fighting a different battle; a battle to enforce the mental laws of Occupational Health.
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