Uploaded February 2017 | Updated September 2026, 15 hours ago
One hundred years ago in 1914, the American Public Health Association (APHA) created its sixth professional section—Industrial Hygiene, which in 1955 was renamed the Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Section. Dr. David Michaels, a long-time member of the OHS Section and Assistant Secretary of OSHA, recalls some history and discusses the current state of occupational health and safety in the United States. The original officers of APHA’s Industrial Hygiene Section were Alice Hamilton, George Kober, and Emery Hayhurst. Alice Hamilton, MD, was the section’s first vice-chair (1915), and its second chair (1916). Dr. Hamilton is known to many as a true hero, a trailblazer, a scientist, and a humanistGeorge Kober preceded Alice Hamilton as first chair of the Industrial Hygiene Section. Kober’s interest in occupational health went back at least to 1890 when he taught a course at Georgetown University. Emery Hayhurst, the first secretary of the section, had multiple terms as both chair and vice chair; he was representative of the reformist public health agency official working in a progressive state administration. Hayhurst started his occupational health career assisting Alice Hamilton as the expert on brass poisoning of the Illinois Commission on Occupational Diseases, which was charged with defining and finding poisonous occupations and then gaining access to those workplaces. Kober, Hamilton, and Hayhurst were the first three officers and chairs of the section. They were joined at the early (1914-1929) meetings by many notables of public health and other allied fields: economics, sociology, medicine, actuarial science, labor law, unions, and government. At the outset, the section was a place where a diverse set of U.S. public health professionals met and shared their ideas and experiences. What Alice Hamilton and other members of the Occupational Health and Safety Section knew and know is that the struggle over health and safety is not solely technical. Read the New Solution’s article, APHA OHS AT 100—A LOOK TO THE FUTURE, (journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.2190/NS.24.3.a )for more information, To learn more about the OHS Section of APHA, go to apha.org/apha-communities/member-sections/occupational-health-and-safety .
One hundred years ago in 1914, the American Public Health Association (APHA) created its sixth professional section—Industrial Hygiene, which in 1955 was renamed the Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Section. Dr. David Michaels, a long-time member of the OHS Section and Assistant Secretary of OSHA, recalls some history and discusses the current state of occupational health and safety in the United States. The original officers of APHA’s Industrial Hygiene Section were Alice Hamilton, George Kober, and Emery Hayhurst. Alice Hamilton, MD, was the section’s first vice-chair (1915), and its second chair (1916). Dr. Hamilton is known to many as a true hero, a trailblazer, a scientist, and a humanistGeorge Kober preceded Alice Hamilton as first chair of the Industrial Hygiene Section. Kober’s interest in occupational health went back at least to 1890 when he taught a course at Georgetown University. Emery Hayhurst, the first secretary of the section, had multiple terms as both chair and vice chair; he was representative of the reformist public health agency official working in a progressive state administration. Hayhurst started his occupational health career assisting Alice Hamilton as the expert on brass poisoning of the Illinois Commission on Occupational Diseases, which was charged with defining and finding poisonous occupations and then gaining access to those workplaces. Kober, Hamilton, and Hayhurst were the first three officers and chairs of the section. They were joined at the early (1914-1929) meetings by many notables of public health and other allied fields: economics, sociology, medicine, actuarial science, labor law, unions, and government. At the outset, the section was a place where a diverse set of U.S. public health professionals met and shared their ideas and experiences. What Alice Hamilton and other members of the Occupational Health and Safety Section knew and know is that the struggle over health and safety is not solely technical. Read the New Solution’s article, APHA OHS AT 100—A LOOK TO THE FUTURE, (journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.2190/NS.24.3.a )for more information, To learn more about the OHS Section of APHA, go to apha.org/apha-communities/member-sections/occupational-health-and-safety .
