August 11, 2022

A Timeline of Workplace Safety in the U.S.

Picture above: In honor of OSHA’s Safe+Sound Week (August 15-21), we thought it might be interesting to take a brief look at the history of workplace safety in the United States.

Imagine your workday consists of standing on a beam a couple of feet wide, hundreds of feet above the ground. There’s no harness to secure you and nothing to catch you if you fall; one slip means certain death. As you look around at your fellow construction crew members, you realize that–statistically speaking–some of you won’t survive to see this project completed.

This may seem barbaric, but it was pretty much standard operating procedure during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Construction workers, miners, loggers, farmers, fishermen, and factory workers were routinely subjected to dangerous conditions during our nation’s early industrial era, as manufacturing technology outpaced the development of safety standards.

1877 – Massachusetts Factory Acts

The Industrial Revolution in the U.S. led to an abundance of filthy and dirty working conditions that, sadly, many factories were slow to address. Massachusetts was the first state to pass factory safety and health laws. Their Factory Acts, which borrowed heavily from the British laws of the same name, established an official inspection force for factories and public buildings, as well as safety protocols for mechanical equipment, ventilation, and cleanliness.

1884 – Bureau of Labor Act

With the Bureau of Labor Act, Congress established a Bureau of Labor Statistics to collect data about labor and employment. Although it began as a subsidiary of the Department of the Interior, the bureau eventually became the full-blown Department of Labor in 1913. Newly appointed Secretary of Labor William B. Wilson chaired the first meeting of the International Labour Organization in 1919, even though the U.S. had not officially joined yet.

1908 – Federal Employers Liability Act

The Federal Employers Liability Act (FELA) was enacted by Congress in 1908 in response to dangerous conditions for railroad workers. Under FELA, employers could now be held liable when workers were injured or killed on the job. FELA made employers responsible for providing benefits to injured workers or their surviving family members. However, the workers (or their families) were required to prove employer negligence in order to receive these benefits.

1911 – Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in Greenwich Village killed 146 garment workers, most of whom were young immigrant women. The factory had only one fire escape, which collapsed as workers were attempting to flee the burning building. In addition, most of the stairwells and exits had been locked to prevent workers from taking breaks. While it certainly wasn’t the first tragedy to spin out of poor working conditions, it was one of the first to spark outrage in the general public and bring widespread attention to the issues. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire became a rallying cry that would pave the way for workers’ compensation, building and fire safety codes, and eventually the Occupational Safety and Health Act.

1911 – Wisconsin Workmen’s Compensation Act

Workers’ compensation insurance was actually first introduced in Germany in 1870 and quickly spread throughout Europe. However, it didn’t take off in the U.S. until 1911, when Wisconsin passed its Workmen’s Compensation Act. Nine other states followed Wisconsin’s example within the year, and thirty-six more passed their own regulations over the next decade.

1914 – National Safety Council

The National Council for Industrial Safety was established in 1913 by a group of industry and government representatives who were seeking to “organize and create a permanent body for the promotion of the safety to human life in the industries of the United States.” In 1914, the organization changed its name to National Safety Council, expanding its scope to include traffic safety and home safety.

1933 – Golden Gate Bridge

San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge was the first suspension bridge supported by a tower in the ocean and surrounded by harsh weather and water conditions. At the time, the industry norm for worker deaths was one man for every million dollars spent. However, chief engineer Joseph Strauss was bound and determined to keep his workers as safe as possible. In addition to safety lines, hard hats, glare-free goggles, and sand-blast respirators, Strauss commissioned a rope-and-mesh safety net to be deployed underneath the entire length of the bridge. That net saved the lives of 19 men, who were dubbed members of the “Halfway-to-Hell Club.” Eleven workers still lost their lives during the project, including 10 who died when a portion of scaffold fell through the net. But Strauss’s safety regulations can still be credited with saving many lives and setting new worksite safety standards.

1952 – Coal Mine Safety Act

The Coal Mine Safety Act was passed in response to a 1951 explosion that killed 111 miners in Illinois. This law authorized annual inspections of underground coal mines and gave the U.S. Bureau of Mines the authority to shut mines down in cases of imminent danger. It also mandated ventilation in mines to limit the levels of methane, as well as dusting mine walls with limestone to limit the levels of coal dust. The passage of the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969 would expand this law to cover surface *and* underground mines, as well as provide compensation for miners who had been permanently disabled by “black lung.”

1970 – Occupational Safety and Health Act

With the passing of the Occupational Safety and Health Act, the Department of Labor established the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to “assure safe and healthful working conditions for working men and women by authorizing enforcement of the standards developed under the Act.” For the past 50 years, OSHA has been setting standards and enforcing policies that keep workers safe and healthy, as well as providing training, outreach, education, and signage to help companies stay in compliance.

Since its founding, OSHA has continued to expand their baseline for worker safety and health by updating their standards to address new issues.

Asbestos Standard (1972). OSHA limited workplace exposure to asbestos fibers, which had been found to cause asbestosis (serious lung disease) and mesothelioma (cancer of the lungs and abdomen).

Construction Safety Standards (1972). Regulations to protect construction workers operating electric power equipment, aerial lifts, and helicopters were put into place.

Carcinogens Standards (1974). OSHA issued a final rule that established comprehensive standards for 14 cancer-causing substances that were found to have chronic health effects.

Vinyl Chloride Standard (1974). This regulation limited the exposure of workers in manufacturing facilities to vinyl chloride, a flammable gas found to cause cancer of the liver.

On-Site Consultation Program (1975). OSHA founded and funded this free service to help small employers identify and correct serious workplace hazards.

Coke Oven Emissions Standard (1976). This regulation was put into place to protect workers in steel production facilities from exposure to coke oven emissions, which were known to cause lung cancer.

Diving Standards (1977). OSHA created these regulations to protect workers in commercial diving operations.

Cotton Dust Standards (1978). This regulation was intended to protect workers in the textile industry from “brown lung.”

Hazard Communication Standard (1983). Also known as the “Right to Know” regulation, this standard required employers to inform and train workers who handled (or were exposed to) toxic substances in order to limit health and safety risks.

Laboratory Safety Standard (1990). This regulation protected lab workers who were exposed to hazardous chemicals.

Bloodborne Pathogens Standard (1991). This regulation was enacted to protect exposed workers from HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis B infection.

Chemical Process Safety Management Standard (1992). This regulation reduced the risk of deadly fires and explosions for 3 million workers at 25,000 workplaces. It has prevented an estimated 250 deaths/year since its implementation.

Construction Scaffold Safety Standard (1996). This regulation mandated safety measures to protect an estimated 2.3 million construction workers.

Steel Erection Standard (2001). This standard was enacted to protect construction workers involved in steel erection. It has prevented an estimated 30 deaths/year since it was implemented.

Fire Protection in Shipyard Standard (2004). This regulation protected shipyard workers from fire hazards on vessels and on land-based facilities.

Cranes and Derricks Standard (2010). This regulation was put into place to prevent the leading causes of deaths among crane and derrick operators on more than 250,000 worksites.

Workplace Safety in the 21st Century

What does this historical flashback mean for a 21st century workforce? Laws and policies continue to evolve, and technology can keep employers one step ahead of minimum safety requirements. VigiLife is focused on prevention of injuries through risk mitigation and the promotion of environmental and physiological monitoring capabilities. This is about more than just strains and sprains and slips and falls. It’s about using tech to look at geo-location, heart rate variability, core body temperature, and respiration, as well as providing alerts to prevent exposure to toxic gases and other workplace hazards. Commercially available IoT wearables are now being applied to the industrial workforce and VigiLife is leading the way with its Safety-as-a-Service SafeGuard platform and sensor-agnostic approach.