Agenda UV

The López Piñero Institute for the History of Medicine and Science (joint centre of the University of Valencia and CSIC), based at the Palau de Cerveró, presents the seminar Dangerous Trades: Towards a Trans-National Industrial Hazard History, on Thursday, 7 March, at 17:00 in the conference room of the institute. The seminar, which is part of the series of activities “Atmosferes tòxiques: Salut ambiental i ocupacional en l’era industrial” (Toxic atmospheres: Environmental and Occupational Health in the Industrial Age), will be held entirely in English, and will be taught by Joseph Melling, co-director of the Centre for Medical History of the University of Exeter (England).

The seminar addresses the research carried out in recent years by Joseph Melling and fellow researcher Christopher Sellers from the University of New York. Both have analysed the evolution and distribution of industrial hazards in the global economy of the past two centuries. Approximately two million deaths are attributable to accidents in the workplace. How to explain the proliferation of dangers and, at the same time, of the knowledge and laws that could prevent them? In this regard, groups of historians have recently accepted the challenge of carrying out a trans-national analysis of the hazardous industries that emerge, thrive and plunder or pollute.

This seminar aims to provide an overview of this new field of study that seeks to trans-nationalise the history of industrial hazards, especially in relation to the history of science. Joseph Melling is co-director of the Centre for Medical History of the University of Exeter (England). He has researched the history of industrial health and safety for many years. His interests include the history of silicosis –a lung disease–, the history of mental health (including a recent project on blood pressure), and the history of labour relations. Currently, he works with Christopher Sellers in a new project on trans-nationalisation and environmental health since the 1940s