Employers blamed silicosis on workers’ home lifestyles, not dust exposure

Evidence

Just attributed the cause of workers’ health problems to poor living conditions rather than to unhealthy working conditions. Many of the miners lived in shabby shacks amid piles of dust. Just criticized them for making bad lifestyle choices: “[T]he wages paid in our industry are certainly adequate to support decent living. That many people who can afford better homes, prefer to live in small, unpainted two or three room shacks and spend their surplus funds on automobiles and radios cannot be charged against the mining industry” (Just, 1940). — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1794 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Corporate spokesmen blamed workers’ own lifestyle choices for occupational disease — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 1794; Corporations attributed occupational cancers to worker genetics rather than chemical exposure — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 1787; Industry doctors blamed workers’ drinking, not chemical exposure, for occupation-caused cancers — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 1783 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Corporate spokesmen blamed workers’ own lifestyle choices for occupational disease #expands (0.92) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1794