2.2 Environmental risk management  (Page 2/3)

Parallel work on the effects of chemical exposure on workers (and poor working conditions in general) were pioneered by Alice Hamilton (1869-1970), who published the first treatise on toxic chemical exposure "Industrial Poisons in the United States" in 1925. Hamilton is considered the founder of the field of occupational health . In 1897 she was appointed professor of pathology at the Women's Medical School of Northwestern University, and in 1902 she accepted the position of bacteriologist at the Memorial Institute for Infectious Diseases in Chicago. Dr. Hamilton joined Jane Addams's Hull House , in Chicago, where she interacted with progressive thinkers who often gravitated there, and to the needs of the poor for whom Hull House provided services.

Environmental contamination and risk

Events during the period 1920-1950 took an unfortunate turn. Global conflicts and economic uncertainty diverted attention from environmental issues, and much of what had been learned during the previous hundred years, for example about soil conservation and sustainable forestry, ceased to influence policy, with resultant mismanagement on a wide scale (see Figures Texas Dust Storm and Clear Cutting, Louisiana, 1930 ).

In the aftermath of the World War II, economic and industrial activity in the United States accelerated, and a consumer-starved populace sought and demanded large quantities of diverse goods and services. Major industrial sectors, primary metals, automotive, chemical, timber, and energy expanded considerably; however there were still few laws or regulations on waste management, and the ones that could and often were invoked (e.g. the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899 ) were devised in earlier times for problems of a different nature. The Module Systems of Waste Management provides a more detailed accounting of the current framework for managing waste. Here we recount the circumstances that eventually resulted in the promulgation of environmental risk as a basis for public policy, with subsequent passage of major environmental legislation.

If there were any doubts among American society that the capacity of the natural environment to absorb human-caused contamination with acceptably low risk was indeed infinite, these were dispelled by a series of well-publicized incidents that occurred during the period 1948-1978. Figure Zinc Smelter shows a local smelter in a small valley town in Pennsylvania with, essentially, uncontrolled emissions. During periods of atmospheric stability (an inversion), contaminants became trapped, accumulated, and caused respiratory distress so extraordinary that fifty deaths were recorded. Figure Noon in Donora illustrates the dramatically poor air quality, in the form of reduced visibility, during this episode. Such incidents were not uncommon, nor were they limited to small American towns. A well-documented similar episode occurred in London, England in 1952 with at least 4000 deaths, and 100,000 illnesses resulting.