Industry blamed worker noncompliance instead of installing engineering controls

Evidence

Rather than setting standards for effective exhaust and ventilation systems, however, the industry shifted the focus from needed structural improvements to workers’ use of masks: … With some men respirators are a continual complaint… . But these men should be keenly aware of the gravity of the disease which may be suffered if they unnecessarily expose themselves to excessive concentrations. They should in no way resist the reasonable efforts of management to protect their own health. (U.S. Department of Labor, 1938) In their efforts to ward off pressure from lawmakers and labor unions to address the silicosis problem, spokespersons for silica industries disparaged those who helped the victims, as well as the scientists and victims themselves. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1805

Categorization

• XREF: Classic blame-the-victim framing disengaging moral agency, linking to how ordinary people justify harming out-groups.
• ADDENDUM: Supports the psychological mechanism by which structural harm is rationalized as individual failing rather than corporate responsibility.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 1805