Details - Public Health Image Library(PHIL)

ID#:

9613

Caption:

Worker in an unidentified dusty factory setting in Indiana in 1947. The photograph highlights the exhaust ventilation system in the factory. In the World War II years, personal protective equipment was the main way to protect workers from hazardous dusts and fumes, because engineering controls, such as ventilation systems, were too expensive to implement. After the war, it was more economically feasible for industries to install such exposure controls. The U.S. Public Health Service Industrial Hygiene Division surveyed industries such as this one around the nation after the war, to learn about and to show others improved and inadequate industrial safety and health practices.