Alice Hamilton

Founder of industrial medicine who exposed workplace health hazards in early 20th-century America

Dr. Alice Hamilton (1869–1970) pioneered occupational health reforms through landmark studies connecting worker illnesses to industrial toxins. Her 1910 investigation of lead poisoning in battery factories led to Illinois' first workers' compensation laws, detailed in her seminal work Industrial Poisons in the United States.

As Harvard's first female faculty member (1919), Hamilton faced institutional resistance but persisted in exposing mercury hazards in hat-making and radium dangers in watch factories. Her research methodology became the blueprint for modern NIOSH investigations.

Hamilton's advocacy extended globally through her League of Nations work on chemical safety. Her autobiography Exploring the Dangerous Trades remains crucial reading for public health professionals. The OSHA standards protecting millions of workers today trace directly to her groundbreaking epidemiological approaches.