Exploring the Dangerous Trades

A. Hamilton, Exploring the Dangerous Trades The Autobiography of AUce Hamilton, M,D, , Little, Brown and Company, Boston, MA, 1943, p. 114 Excerpted at http //historymatters.gmu.edu/d/l 05/... 

Alice Hamilton (1869-1970). This petite American physician was a true hero in the field of industrial medicine. She was the first woman to be named to the Harvard Medical School staff her writings included Industrial Poisons in the United States (1925), Industrial Toxicology (1934), and Exploring the Dangerous Trades (1943). Dr. Hamilton was a pioneer who performed much of her own field research. When she sought to better understand the hazards associated with lead, she introduced herself to leadworkers, went to their modest homes, interviewed their family members, and observed them firsthand performing their dirty, dangerous jobs. 

Hamilton, A. 1943. Exploring the Dangerous Trades. Boston Little, Brown Company. 

Publication of Alice Hamilton s Exploring the Dangerous Trades. 

Hamilton, Alice. Exploring the Dangerous Trades The Autobiography of Alice Hamilton, MD. Boston Northeastern University Press, 1985. 

Abstract Personal armour saves lives when people have dangerous jobs to do. The benefit of this protection comes at the cost of making tasks more difficult and expensive. Hence, there is a fundamental trade-off between having too httle and too much protection. This chapter explores the topics of survivabihty and human vulnerabihty in order to describe how personal armour is optimised. It outlines how our understanding of threats, armour and people are combined, and how protection is balanced against ergonomic and financial constraints. 

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