Alice Hamilton

An American physician and toxicologist who founded the field of occupational medicine in the United States. Beginning in the early twentieth century, Hamilton combined factory visits and interviews with workers alongside laboratory investigation to document the health effects of industrial poisons such as lead, mercury, benzene and radium, work that laid the scientific foundation for workplace health and safety regulation. In 1919 she became the first woman appointed to the faculty of Harvard University, and her 1925 book Industrial Poisons in the United States became a standard reference in the field. Her advocacy for protecting workers from industrial toxins is credited as a direct influence on the Occupational Safety and Health Act, which Congress passed within three months of her death in 1970.