I recently wrote about the movie Alice in Wonderland and the Mad Hatter as the victim of an occupational disease. The NIOSH science blog took this theme a step further, looking at other movies with workplace safety stories or implications. Here’s what it had to say:

Occupational Safety & Health in the Movies

“The Mad Hatter and his illness are one example of how the real problems faced by working people find their way into the movies as either the main story line (Norma Rae), a secondary theme (The Yearling), or as a real life outcome of making the movie (The Wizard of Oz)—a favorite example of NIOSH Director, John Howard. During the making of that movie, Buddy Ebsen, originally cast as the Tin Man, had to be replaced after coming down with severe shortness of breath which was diagnosed at the time to be an “allergy” to the aerosol (powder) application of his tin oxide makeup. Ebsen was replaced by actor Jack Haley whose “tin” makeup was then applied as a paste.

Movies have the power to bring the plight of a few before the eyes of many. Through this blog we are collecting favorite occupational safety and health-related movies. Our goal is to post a Top 10 list. One of my personal favorite OSH movies is Modern Times, in which Charlie Chaplin’s Tramp contends with the hazards in his workplace, as Chaplin the actor undoubtedly did while making the movie. Indeed, Chaplin was injured while making Easy Street when he was hit across the bridge of his nose by a streetlamp when struggling with the lamp and the Bully.

Another film that I love, but which also unknowingly has a potential OSH connection is Breaking Away, the story of a love-sick competitive bicycler. Our NIOSH group has demonstrated the perils to sexual function in men and women who are bicycle patrol police as well as to competitive and recreational bicycle riders using saddles with a nose.

Mary Poppins highlights the very first occupational cancer attributed to a chemical. In 1775, “scrotal cancer of chimney sweeps” was attributed to soot. The intervention of the time, better bathing requirements, was strikingly effective. The causative agent was shown, 150 years later, to be 3:4-benzpyrene in coal tar.”

—James Kesner, Ph.D.

Please add your favorite movie or show support for one already mentioned in the comment section below or on NIOSH’s original blog.