United States History Commons^™

Perils And Precautions: Mining Safety And Public Policy, Kenneth Hawkins

Theory and Practice: HIST430

In the United States the Industrial Revolution brought about many new occupational hazards for workers. This was true for most jobs, but few were more dangerous than that of coal mining in the Crawford-Cherokee region of Kansas and the other main mining areas such as West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Colorado, and Utah. Between 1887 and 1926 there was a great series of accidents, explosions in particular, which became a catalyst for policy change in regards to coal mining safety. Initial measures that were put into place to protect miners from accidents proved to be inadequate. And even with the advent of …