Making human junk: child labor as a health issue in the Progressive Era.

Abstract

The adverse health effects of work on approximately 2 million employed children troubled many in the United States during the early 20th century. Advocates of reform initially built a rationale for protective legislation primarily from informal, lay observations of the broad developmental outcomes of premature employment. In this endeavor, they projected a dismal scenario of impending national deterioration. This argument received strong criticism for the inadequacy of its corroborating evidence. In response, Progressive reformers emphasized the specific, measurable consequences of particular occupations. Increasingly, liberal advocates of the exclusion of boys and girls from the work force drew upon statistical compilations of occupational injuries and illnesses diagnosed by physicians. Despite their turn toward scientism, Progressives remained somewhat ambivalent about the sufficiency of quantitative data alone to achieve their aims.

Integrating Occupational Health with Mainstream Public Health in Massachusetts: An Approach to Intervention

“…In the late 19th century, factory conditions and worker's health were among the central concerns of the social reform movement that led to the development of the public health system in the United States. 1 In the first half of the 20th century, the lead role in occupational health and safety alternated between the U.S. Public Health Service and the U.S. Department of Labor. 2 With the passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act in 1970 and the new regulatory roles subsequently entrusted to federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration and state labor departments, responsibility for occupational safety and health appears to have been largely relinquished by state health departments.…”

Social Movements in Health

“…The National Child Labor Committee, formed in 1904, documented the continuing horrors and health-destroying effects of child labor in its Child Labor Bulletin and amplified the impact of its published findings by illustrating them with the pioneering documentary photographs of Lewis Hine (27). Another major Progressive Era advocacy organization for child health was the American Association for the Study and Prevention of Infant Mortality (AASPIM), established in 1909 (13).…”

Health and safety of young workers: proceedings of a U.S. and Canadian series of symposia.

“…These systems can be used to identify sentinel cases for follow-up and, at the same time, generate representative summary data to guide broader based prevention efforts. Arguably, it is the combination of case stories and statistics that is often most compelling in influencing public health policy [Derickson 1992].…”