Safety History is long and complex, dating back to the early days of the Industrial Revolution. Memory takes us back to the Industrial Revolution, which occurred at the beginning of the contemporary age, between the 18th and 19th centuries. By learning from the past and staying up-to-date on the latest trends of HSE, we can help to ensure that all workers have a safe and healthy workplace. The safety history encompasses the development of regulations and practices aimed at protecting workers’ health, safety, and well-being in the workplace.
As factories and other workplaces became more dangerous, workers began to demand better working conditions. In response, the government began to pass laws and regulations to protect workers from harm. The safety history is an ongoing one.
One of the earliest examples of occupational health and safety legislation was the Factory Act of 1833 in the United Kingdom. This law limited the number of hours that children could work in factories and required employers to provide essential safety equipment. In the United States, the first major piece of occupational health and safety legislation, a turning point in safety history, was the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (OSHA).
Since the passage of OSHA, there has been a significant improvement in occupational health and safety in the United States. The number of workplace fatalities has decreased by more than 60%, and the number of injuries and illnesses has fallen by more than 40%. However, there is still work to be done. Every year, thousands of workers are still killed or injured on the job.
Workplace safety history
The 18th and 19th centuries brought about the rapid growth of industry, leading to unsafe working conditions and exploitation of workers. For this reason, we consider that the history of industrial safety is a recent issue because of numerous industrial accidents and hazardous work environments.
Occupational health and safety is an important issue in many countries around the world. Governments, businesses, and workers are all working together to create safe and healthy workplaces for all. At present, industrial safety has been generating great interest on the part of employers and workers. In particular, governments have invested money in the dissemination of safety regulations and the periodic inspection of companies, factories and industries through various control agencies.
Since then, different organizations have been established to create occupational safety protocols. Both the United States and the European Union have worked to make this area an essential part of organizations. Standards such as OHSAS or ISO 18000 and ISO 45000 present occupational health and safety as a management system that can be established, controlled and measured to guarantee results and show progress in this regard.
In countries such as Colombia and Spain, standards such as ISO 18,001 have been made by national laws, forcing companies to design, implement and audit their Occupational Safety management systems, reducing accident rates and occupational diseases.
Technology, demography, sustainable development, changes in the organization of work, psychosocial risks, work-related stress and non-communicable diseases, among other factors, present new challenges today. On the other hand, this evolution offers opportunities for improvement, for example, the use of technology for risk assessment and the performance of dangerous jobs, as well as the modification of working hours to better reconcile work with personal life.
In this blog, we are going to study safety history in three ages. Just as work has evolved, industrial safety has gone hand in hand, sometimes advancing slowly and sometimes recovering.
First Age of Safety
The safety history goes back to antiquity, to the work system that prevailed through slavery. Amid this environment, the health of the slave was not considered necessary, so safe practices were unknown.
Slaves played an essential role in the productive activities of the ancient world since they were the ones who carried out the most arduous and risky tasks. The Act Against Slavery was a law signed by the lieutenant governor of the colony of Upper Canada, John Graves Simcoe in 1793. He did so by describing slavery as an offence against Christianity.
The year 1865 was when slavery was abolished in the giant American territory. Without a doubt, there were many centuries of injustice and suffering, and one of the most humiliating stages in safety history was the end.
Egypt is one of the civilizations of the ancient world that has had remarkable innovations in occupational health and safety. Some safety devices were used by the slaves who were dedicated to building the pyramids that adorned the Egyptian city.
The Middle Ages range from the 5th century, with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and Byzantine Empire, to the mid-15th century, the work was purely manual and physical, helped on some occasions by animal traction so that mortality and occupational diseases used to be confused with general conditions.
In the fifteenth century, in Germany, Ulrich Ellenbaf added a new paragraph in safety history and wrote a book about occupational diseases and some preventive measures. Unknowingly, it became the first text on Industrial Safety. Industrial safety has stagnated since some doctors and scholars such as Kircher and Ramazzini made their contributions in writings focused on occupational health, but there is no news of legislation or revision of work methods.
What is the second age of safety?
The Industrial Revolution occurred between the mid-18th century and the mid-19th century, almost at the same time as the beginning of the contemporary age. This period is considered the turning point in the changes of humanity. Inventions and discoveries took place, the steam engine, the use of coal, the development of railways, the textile industry and electricity, radically changed the lifestyle and work.
Factories began with a large number of workers, serial work and industrialization. At this time there were great difficulties because the workers were subjected to long hours and in many cases to mistreatment.
The migrant farmers did not receive the salary they expected, but they were forced to work in subhuman conditions because they had no other option. As the number of migrants exceeded the capacity of the cities, population density increased and with it, overcrowding spread and diseases and epidemics proliferated.
The health and safety conditions were minimal, partly due to the number of workers, but mainly due to the lack of an efficient safety culture, both on the part of workers, as well as employers. This covers from the mid-nineteenth century, until the start of the First World War in 1914. By then, fuels such as oil, gas and electricity were already available, which became the economic axes of the countries.
New transportation and communication systems, automobiles, aeroplanes, the telephone, and the radio was introduced to the new world. The economy began to become international. Work was affected by consumption and the organization of work in the cities.
However, overcrowding, poor sanitation and unsafe practices claimed the lives of many, including children and women. Social problems and protests skyrocketed. In 1802, the English Parliament set the working hours and the hygiene and safety conditions in factories.
In America, the advance of the Industrial Revolution and likewise the protests had repercussions. With the revolt in Chicago, the 8-hour working day was established. In 1919 the International Labor Organization (ILO) began to function. In 1918 the American School also appeared with Heinrich, Simonds, and Birds which proposed an analytical and preventive approach to accidents.
Meanwhile, sanitary inspections began in the industries, in 1875 the First Institute of Occupational Hygiene was founded in Munich. Between 1874 and 1890 the legislation that protects workers against occupational hazards was developed, sponsored by England and France and in 1911 the first compensation to a worker was had.
What are the three ages of safety?
Starting in the second decade of the 21st century, the most contemporary we have is the 20th century. Marked in its first half, by two world wars, which affected the economies, populations and ideologies throughout the planet.
After World War II, interest in new disciplines related to safety planning and management began to increase. New substances and chemicals that had been developed led to increased demand for studies and countermeasures. New international institutions interested in health issues emerged, particularly the United Nations (UN) and the World Health Organization (WHO).
In 1952, the ILO and WHO established their first joint Committee on Occupational Health. The overlapping scope of the work of both agencies meant that the ILO shifted away from strictly medical issues associated with OSH to emphasis on prevention issues, within the framework of a single program covering safety and health aspects.
Following the Chornobyl nuclear disaster in 1986, attitudes towards OSH began to evolve to foster a “safety culture”, based on risk assessment, prevention and mitigation, taking into account the mental health of workers, as well as their physical well-being.
The approval of the ILO Global Strategy on Safety and Health at Work in 2003 highlighted this evolution and contributed to a greater emphasis on prevention than on prescription. The first World Day for Safety and Health at Work was celebrated on April 28, 2003. , based on the greater public interest that this subject aroused.
In the early 1900s, there was a growing awareness of the need to protect workers from these risks. In 1912, the U.S. government established the Public Health Service (PHS) to address occupational health concerns. The PHS was responsible for developing and enforcing safety standards in a variety of industries, including mining, manufacturing, and construction.
Fundacentro is a pillar of safety history, a public institution dedicated to research, training and technical assistance in safety, hygiene and health at work, linked to the Ministry of Economy of Brazil. It was founded in 1966 when a rapid industrialization cycle began and occupational health and safety problems increased in Brazil. Fundacentro initiated actions to mitigate occupational diseases and accidents through the development of standardized work regulations.
Today Fundacentro is headquartered in Sao Paulo and has 13 other regional offices throughout the country, with which it carries out programs and projects. Some of them are in collaboration with the Pan American Health Organization, the World Health Organization and the International Labor Organization, as well as alliances with Japan, Australia and other countries in America and Europe.
History of occupational health and safety
The safety history is a story of progress. Through the efforts of workers, governments, and businesses, we have made great strides in protecting workers from harm. However, there is still more to be done. We must continue to work to create safe and healthy workplaces for all workers. Here are some of the key events in the safety history:
- 1833: The Factory Act of 1833 was passed in the United Kingdom, limiting the number of hours that children could work in factories and requiring employers to provide essential safety equipment.
- 1877: Massachusetts pioneers the establishment of factory safeguards and the reporting of accidents.
- 1910: The National Safety Council is founded in the United States.
- 1912: The U.S. government established the Public Health Service (PHS) to address occupational health concerns.
- 1931: The International Labour Organization (ILO) adopts the Occupational Safety and Health Convention, which establishes basic principles for occupational safety and health.
- 1933: The U.S. Department of Labor established the Bureau of Labor Standards (BLS) to develop and enforce safety standards in the workplace.
- 1960: The National Safety Council (NSC) launches its “Safety First” campaign.
- 1970: The U.S. government passed the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act), which created the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).
- 1971: OSHA is officially established as the federal body responsible for worker health and safety.
- 1972: The Robens Report is published in the United Kingdom, recommending a new approach to occupational safety and health.
- 1974: Health and Safety at Work Act
- 1981: Occupational safety and health recommendation (R164) and convention (C155) set out the roles and responsibilities of governments, enterprises and workers.
- 1984: The Bhopal disaster occurs in India, killing over 3,000 people and exposing thousands more to toxic chemicals.
- 1990: The Clean Air Act is amended to include provisions for worker protection from exposure to hazardous air pollutants.
- 1995: The ILO adopts the Occupational Health and Safety (ILO-OSH) Convention, which updates the 1931 Convention and includes new provisions on occupational hygiene and preventing occupational diseases.
- 2001: ILO occupational health and safety management system established.
- 2002: The Sarbanes-Oxley Act is passed, requiring public companies to disclose information about their occupational health and safety practices.
- 2002: The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) is established.
- Code of practice on safety and health in the iron and steel industry (2005)
- Convention concerning the promotional framework for occupational safety and health, ILO, Geneva, 2006.
- 2010: The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act is passed, requiring financial institutions to disclose information about their occupational health and safety practices.
- 2011: The International Labor Organization (ILO) adopts the Violence and Harassment Convention, which addresses violence and harassment in the workplace.
Conclusion
The safety history shows us how it has made significant progress since the end of the first industrial revolution, becoming a science that deals with worker safety. The concept of Industrial Safety has been established among employers, workers and governments, to reach protocols and procedures that benefit all parties.
Today in safety history, taking care of Industrial Safety is considered a factor of productivity and organization, which is why there are international and local standards that allow designing, implementing and controlling this area, delivering evident results.
Let’s make sure that we are always aware of workplace hazards and that we take steps to protect ourselves. By sharing the article ‘Safety History’, we can help to raise awareness of the importance of occupational health and safety. We can also help to create a culture of safety in the workplace.
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