Editing Alice Hamilton (section)

===Medical investigator===
Hamilton began her long career in public health and workplace safety in 1910, when Illinois governor [[Charles S. Deneen]] appointed her as a medical investigator to the newly formed Illinois Commission on Occupational Diseases.<ref name="CHFBio"/><ref name="Alice Hamilton ACS Landmark-X"/><ref name="Stebner">{{cite book |last1=Stebner |first1=Eleanor J. |title=The women of Hull House : a study in spirituality, vocation, and friendship |date=1997 |publisher=State University of New York Press |location=New York |isbn=9780791434871 |pages=128–139 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jDuFeO9tlbkC&pg=PA137 |access-date=October 9, 2018}}</ref> Hamilton led the commission's investigations, which focused on industrial poisons such as lead and other toxins.<ref name=Jay148/><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://blogs.cdc.gov/niosh-science-blog/2014/04/28/alice-hamilton/|title=A Voice in the Wilderness: Alice Hamilton and the Illinois Survey {{!}} NIOSH Science Blog {{!}} Blogs {{!}} CDC|website=blogs.cdc.gov|date=April 28, 2014 |access-date=November 12, 2016|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161113033928/https://blogs.cdc.gov/niosh-science-blog/2014/04/28/alice-hamilton/|archive-date=November 13, 2016}}</ref> She also authored the "Illinois Survey," the commission's report that documented its findings of industrial processes that exposed workers to lead poisoning and other illnesses. She discovered over seventy industrial processes through which workers became exposed to lead poisoning. In addition, she uncovered professions, such as polishing cut glass and wrapping cigars in "tinfoil," that exhibited an increase expose to lead poisoning, contrary to the public's beliefs.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Alice Hamilton and the Development of Occupational Medicine |url=https://www.acs.org/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/alicehamilton.html |access-date=February 11, 2025 |website=American Chemical Society |language=en}}</ref> The commission's efforts resulted in the passage of the first workers' compensation laws in Illinois in 1911, in Indiana in 1915, and occupational disease laws in other states.<ref name=Jay148/> The new laws required employers to take safety precautions to protect workers.<ref name="windsor"/><ref name="CDCBio" />

By 1916 Hamilton had become America's foremost authority on lead poisoning.<ref name=NAW304/> For the next decade she investigated a range of issues for a variety of state and federal health committees. Hamilton focused her explorations on occupational toxic disorders, examining the effects of substances such as [[Aniline|aniline dyes]], [[carbon monoxide]], [[Mercury (element)|mercury]], [[tetraethyl lead]], [[radium]], [[benzene]], [[carbon disulfide]] and [[hydrogen sulfide]] gases. In 1925, at a Public Health Service conference on the use of lead in gasoline, she testified against the use of lead and warned of the danger it posed to people and the environment.<ref name="Why"/> Nevertheless, leaded gasoline was allowed.<ref name="Jacobson">{{cite book |last1=Jacobson |first1=Mark Z. |title=Atmospheric pollution : history, science, and regulation |date=2002 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=0521010446 |pages=75–80 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bveEPjMxP3cC&pg=PA76}}</ref><ref name="Kovarik">{{cite journal |last1=Kovarik |first1=William |s2cid=44633845 |title=Ethyl-leaded gasoline: How a classic occupational disease became an international public health disaster |journal=International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health |date=2005 |volume=11 |issue=4 |pages=384–397 |doi=10.1179/oeh.2005.11.4.384 |pmid=16350473}}</ref> The [[EPA]] in 1988 estimated that over the previous 60 years, 68 million children suffered high toxic exposure to lead from leaded fuels.<ref name="Why">{{cite web |url=http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2011/11/why-lead-used-to-be-added-to-gasoline/ |title=Why lead used to be added to gasoline |date=November 15, 2011 |access-date=December 5, 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171003081233/http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2011/11/why-lead-used-to-be-added-to-gasoline/ |archive-date=October 3, 2017 }}</ref>

Her work on the manufacture of [[white lead]] and [[lead oxide]], as a special investigator for the [[U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics]], is considered a "landmark study."<ref name="CHFBio"/> Relying primarily on "shoe leather epidemiology" (her process of making personal visits to factories, conducting interviews with workers, and compiling details of diagnosed poisoning cases) and the emerging laboratory science of toxicology, Hamilton pioneered [[occupational epidemiology]] and [[industrial hygiene]]. She also created the specialized field of industrial medicine in the United States. Her findings were scientifically persuasive and influenced sweeping health reforms that changed laws and general practice to improve the health of workers.<ref name=Jay148/><ref name=Weber35>Weber, p. 35.</ref><ref name=CDCBio>{{cite web|title=Alice Hamilton Science Awards|url=https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/awards/hamilton/HamHist.html|website=Centers for Disease Control and Prevention|publisher=The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)|access-date=October 15, 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150921073843/http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/awards/hamilton/hamhist.html|archive-date=September 21, 2015}}</ref>

During World War I, the US Army tasked her with solving a mysterious ailment striking workers at a munitions plant in New Jersey. She led a team that included [[George Minot]], a professor at Harvard Medical School. She deduced that the workers were being sickened through contact with the explosive [[trinitrotoluene]] (TNT). She recommended that workers wear protective clothing to be removed and washed at the end of each shift, solving the problem.<ref>{{cite web|title=Alice Hamilton a pioneer in occupational health|url=https://tacomed.com/chapter-one-george-minot/alice-hamilton-a-pioneer-in-occupational-health/|website=Tacomed.com|access-date=June 13, 2017|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171228171621/https://tacomed.com/chapter-one-george-minot/alice-hamilton-a-pioneer-in-occupational-health/|archive-date=December 28, 2017}}</ref>

Hamilton's best-known research included her studies on carbon monoxide poisoning among American steelworkers, [[mercury poisoning]] of hatters, and "[[Vibration white finger|a debilitating hand condition developed by workers using jackhammers]]."<ref name=NWHM-exhibits/> At the request of the U.S. Department of Labor, she also investigated industries involved in developing high explosives, "spastic anemia known as 'dead fingers'" among [[Bedford, Indiana]], limestone cutters, and the "unusually high incidence of pulmonary tuberculosis" among tombstone carvers working in the granite mills of [[Quincy, Massachusetts]], and [[Barre (city), Vermont|Barre, Vermont]].<ref name=Weber37>Weber, p. 37.</ref> Hamilton was also a member of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of the Mortality from Tuberculosis in Dusty Trades, whose efforts "laid the groundwork for further studies and eventual widespread reform in the industry."<ref name=Weber37/>