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1 Code of Hammurabi (Babylonia), XX century
BC.
Several regulations that had to be observed by
animal owners, who carried amphorae and goods,
were placed at the entrance of cities to prevent
damage to people, the breakage of these vessels,
etc.
Collegia Romanos (VI century BC.-VI A.C.)
groups of craftsmen and traders whose duties in-
cluded preventing the risks of death and, to a lesser
extent, those of illness.
Laws of the Indies (1680),
prohibited certain ty-
pes of jobs which were either dangerous or which
posed a threat to the Indians (pregnancy, children,
etc).
2 Morbi metallici,
diseases resulting from hand-
ling metals in mining and steelworks activities were
the first occupational diseases described by physi-
cians during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
De Morbis Artificum Diatriba (1700),
Bernardino
Ramazzini, the first systematic description of occu-
pational hazards in 42 professions.
3 The first labour laws,
the so called, factory laws,
were adopted in Great Britain in the 1830s..
Ley Benot (1st Spanish Republic),
was an at-
tempt to put an end to the dire working conditions
of children at factories and workshops.
4 Chicago Revolt (1 May 1886),
demand and ap-
proval of the 8-hour working day. The 1st of May is
commemorated in memory of the “heroes of Chi-
cago” as the International Workers’ Day.
Working Women Day (1911),
was celebrated af-
ter the death of 147 female workers at a fire in a
textile factory in New York.
5 Mining police regulations (1897),
and the ac-
cident laws of 1900,1922 and 1932 were regula-
tions that gave rise to the creation of clinics and
hospitals..
Spanish Crown dominions,
some examples were
the clinics founded in the sixteenth century to provi-
de assistance to miners in Almadén and Guadalca-
nal. There was also a hospital furbished for those
who worked in building the Monastery of El Escorial
(1563-1599). In 1752, the 40-bed Real Hospital
for miners was founded in Almadén as a space to
recover from work exhaustion.
6 First National Work Accident Congress (1922
in Zaragoza),
a clear example of the growing con-
cern of the professionals who were part of this new
speciality. The social value of work medicine was
justified due to its contribution to increasing pro-
ductivity and because of the savings for companies
as a result of the rapid and proper recovery of their
workforce.
Miner children in 1911, U.S.
References
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