Dutchess Community College Labor Spring lecture supported by The Gillespie Forum
“My Dirt”: Lead Poisoning and American Workers”
Location: DCC Main Campus, Taconic Hall, Room 103
Description: "Despite its known dangers, lead in its many forms has been a ubiquitous component of America’s built environment—“the Useful Metal” as the American lead industry liked to call it. American workers, from those mining and smelting lead ore to those removing lead paint or water pipes from American homes, have always navigated perilous course, balancing the opportunity to work against the known, and often unknown risks of working with lead. This talk will introduce some of this complex history, starting with the first third of the 20th century when workers, industry, and governments established a modern set of responses for mitigating most of the dangers of working with lead, even while the production of and the public’s lead consumption (in both meanings of the word) skyrocketed."
Christian Warren is Professor of History at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York. Author of the award-winning Brush with Death: A Social History of Lead Poisoning, his research focuses on the cultural history of health and the built environment. His second book, Starved for Light: The Long Shadow of Rickets and Vitamin D Deficiency, was published by the University of Chicago Press in 2024. He has written articles in the Journal of Southern History, Business History Review, and Public Health Reports, and guest editorials or blog entries in the Journal of Adolescent Health, the American Journal of Public Health, the New York Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the Washington Post. He received his Ph.D. from Brandeis University.
Contact Information about the event: Laura Murphy murphy@sunydutchess.edu
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