ABSTRACT
Everyone is concerned about health and safety. Safety committees are popping up like mushrooms all over the United Kingdom. Legislation providing rights for safety representatives came into effect on October 1, 1978. Industrial designers are being urged to “think safety.” There have been severe cutbacks in spending among government services, in education, health, and the civil service. The 1890s produced some important developments in health and safety. Workers probably went into World War II under similar conditions as World War I, except that there was a whole range of new hazards. The asbestos, rubber, motor, and petrochemical industries had all developed enormously during the interwar period, while the unions and the State were trying to deal with the hazards of the past. The increase in unauthorized wildcat strikes may have put additional pressure on the State and Factory Inspectorate to redefine occupational health and safety as a “technical” issue and beyond politics.
