When the Air Became Important

JANET GREENLEES is an associate professor of history at Glasgow Caledonian University in Scotland. She is the author or editor of several books, including Female Labour Power: Women Workers' Influence on Business Practices in the British and American Cotton Industries, 1780-1860.

• ContentsList of IllustrationsList of TablesList of Abbreviations1          Introduction – When does the air in the workplace become important?2          Textile town and mill environments3          Tuberculosis in the factory4          "I used to feel ill with it:" Heat, humidity and fatigue5          Dust: A New Socio-Environmental Relationship6          "The noise were horrendous:" The ignored industrial hazard7          Conclusion: When does the air become important?AcknowledgementsNotesBibliographyIndex

"In this truly comparative social and environmental history of air pollution, Greenlees deftly weaves public health, regulatory politics and labor relations into a prescient reminder that protecting workers from hazardous workplaces remains a pressing issue on a global scale."— Graham Mooney, Johns Hopkins University, and author of Instrusive Interventions: Public Health, Domestic Space, and"This is a promising, important, and long-awaited project—the first comparative history of industry-related hazards in the United States and Britain.  The author has synthesized a vast body of research, much of it her own original work. At once comprehensive and selective, When the Air Became Important is illuminating scholarship." — Chris Sellers, Stony Brook University