Alice Hamilton quotes

Alice Hamilton was an American scientist and pioneering physician in the field of industrial medicine. Her groundbreaking research helped uncover the dangers of industrial toxins and improve workplace safety. She became the first woman appointed to the faculty at Harvard University and is remembered as a leader in occupational health. Here are 10 of her quotes:

When I talked to my medical friends about the strange silence on this subject in American medical magazines and textbooks, I gained the impression that here was a subject tainted with Socialism or with feminine sentimentality for the poor.

Alice Hamilton

There can be no intelligent control of the lead danger in industry unless it is based on the principle of keeping the air clear from dust and fumes.

Alice Hamilton

Everything I discovered was new and most of it was really valuable.

Alice Hamilton

Illinois then had no legislation providing compensation for accident or disease caused by occupation.

Alice Hamilton

Every article I wrote in those days, every speech I made, is full of pleading for the recognition of lead poisoning as a real and serious medical problem.

Alice Hamilton

It was also my experience at Hull-House that aroused my interest in industrial diseases.

Alice Hamilton

It was impossible for me to believe that conditions in Europe could be worse than they were in the Polish section of Chicago, and in many Italian and Irish tenements, or that any workshops could be worse than some of those I had seen in our foreign quarters.

Alice Hamilton

It was easy to present figures demonstrating the contrast between lead work in the United States under conditions of neglect and ignorance, and comparable work in England and Germany, under intelligent control.

Alice Hamilton

From the first I became convinced that what I must look for was lead dust and lead fumes, that men were poisoned by breathing poisoned air, not by handling their food with unwashed hands.

Alice Hamilton