Deadly Dust: Silicosis and the On-Going Struggle to Protect Workers' Health (Conversations in Medicine and Society) (Paperback)

~ (Author), Gerald Markowitz (Author) "EARLY in the twentieth century, officials of the Granite Cutters' Union in Barre, Vermont, complained that consumption, ""the white man's scourge,"" was ""claiming almost every..." (more)
Key Phrases: silicosis issue, silicosis conference, chronic industrial disease, New York, National Archives, Record Group (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Rosner and Markowitz have produced a carefully crafted history of the rise and fall of this occupational disease, focusing especially on the political forces behind changing disease definitions.... Deadly Dust comes as a fresh breeze into one of the more stuffy and too often ignored alleys of medical history." - The Journal of the American Medical Association "A thought-provoking, densely referenced, uncompromising history.... Like all good history, it challenges our basic assumptions about how the world is ordered and offers both factual information and a conceptual framework for rethinking what we 'know.'" - The New England Journal of Medicine "If there is a paradigmatic tale of occupational health... Deadly Dust is it." - Science "Deadly Dust raises an important methodological problem that has long gone underarticulated in medical historical circles: how can social historians of medicine offer political or economic explanations for the scientific efforts of their professional subjects without losing a grip on the biological aspects of disease?" - The Journal of the History of Medicine"

Review

Rosner and Markowitz have produced a carefully crafted history of the rise and fall of this occupational disease, focusing especially on the political forces behind changing disease definitions.... Deadly Dust comes as a fresh breeze into one of the more stuffy and too often ignored alleys of medical history. (Robert N. Proctor The Journal of the American Medical Association )

Like all good history, [this book] challenges our basic assumptions about how the world is ordered and offers both factual information and a conceptual framework for rethinking what we `know.' (Rosemary K. Sokas The New England Journal of Medicine )

If there is a paradigmatic tale of occupational health--Deadly Dust is it. (James L. Weeks Science ) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 280 pages
• Publisher: University of Michigan Press (June 12, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0472031104
• ISBN-13: 978-0472031108
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,096,748 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Two Cheers for Big Government, March 27, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Deadly Dust (Paperback)

Before you conclude from the title of this work that its contents are as dry as dust, let me assure you they are not. Notwithstanding its scholarly, measured language and meticulous documentation, this is a passionate, absorbing, and infuriating story of corporate greed and criminal contempt for the health of our country's foundry workers. The authors persuasively argue that the lower the status and power of the workers, the greater was their exposure to occupational health hazards. Despite the efforts of courageous lone voices in government and academia, the facts about silicosis were often suppressed. For example, a prestigious academic hired with industry approval to investigate the relationship between sandblasting and silicosis could not even publish his findings in a U.S. journal; his article was published in Germany instead! That millions of workers suffered severe disability and premature death due to silicosis had nothing to do with ignorance. As in the case of the cigarette industry, the facts were there: what was lacking was the government mandate and power to act on the facts. Anyone who carefully follows this tragic tale of unrelenting, unregulated greed and callousness by the foundries would do well to ponder the overly generalized assaults on the evils of big government in the U.S. Greater accountability and regulation earlier could have saved millions of lives. By the way, as the authors point out, industry was quite willing to embrace big government when it suited them. "Employers who had opposed the inclusion of silicosis... came running to the State pleading for the inclusion... so that they would be protected against the unlimited and terrifying common law damage suits which were being filed."