Apha OHS at 100—A Look to the Future

One hundred years ago in 1914, the American Public Health Association (APHA) created its sixth professional section—Industrial Hygiene, which in 1955 was renamed the Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Section. (There are now 29 primary sections.) New Solutions is proud to commemorate the centennial anniversary of the section’s founding by taking notice of the state of occupational health in the United States at that time in history, and to evaluate a century of public health efforts to protect workers from injury, illness, and fatality hazards on the job. In this special issue encompassing the past and present, and with our eyes on the future, we look at how progressive section members and allies through the century have established occupational health and safety as an integral part of public health, and see their efforts, small and large, successful and not, to expose and reduce workplace hazards and improve working conditions of their times.