The Hidden Costs of Industrial Labor
A national health report links high mortality rates in the 'dusty trades' to tuberculosis, fueling labor's push for safer conditions.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
A warning against the dangers of dust was issued recently by the National Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis, showing that the percentage of deaths caused by tuberculosis in dusty trades is more than double that for all employed men. While among males generally in the registration area of the United States 14.8 percent of all deaths are from consumption, the mortality among grinders from this disease is 49.9 percent. The trade union movement is beginning to be understood by the public as a protective force that seeks not only to improve the financial condition of the laboring element but to protect the health and social conditions of its members.
“The public is beginning to understand that trade unions are organized for the protection of the only product the mechanic, the artisan or the laborer has to sell—his skill and ability.”
Long before modern OSHA standards, industrial health was a core concern of the labor movement. The 'dusty trades' were among the first to organize around the basic human right to survive one's own workplace.
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