Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #120222

Jim Weeks, ScD, CIH, NA, 9513 Evergreen Street, Silver Spring, MD 20901, 301 565 9032, jimwyx@verizon.net

Lorin Kerr started his career as a physician at the United Mine Workers of America's (UMWA)Welfare and Retirement Fund., This Fund had evolved from a war-time strike of the UMWA which was settled, in part, with its organization. The Fund evolved from efforts to organize national health insurance and became one of the most progressive means of providing health care in the U.S. Like many progressive physicians of his era, Dr. Kerr was attracted to the Fund for that reason. It was during his work with the Fund that he encountered coal miners disabled by black lung and that turned his attention to occupational disease. He was eventually promoted as the Union's first Director of Occupational Health and championed the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969. This legislation created the black lung benefits program (among other measures) and laid the foundation for the Occupational Safety and Health Act a year later. Dr. Kerr was deeply involved in crafting and implementing the black lung program from then until the day he retired. Dr. Kerr was a physician, not a scientist, and came from the generation of physicians that practiced social medicine. Public health to him was a matter of advocacy, not of calculating risks and benefits. His commitment to workers did not depend on measurements of disease incidence or risk ratios. His strongest asset was his voice: clear, eloquent, and forceful.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the presentation, the participant will be able to

1)Describe and discuss the history and contribution of the United Mine Workers of America's Welfare and Retirement Fund. 2)Describe and discuss the role of Lorin Kerr, M.D., the UMWA's first Director of Occupational Health, and the importance of the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969, which he championed.
• Describe and discuss Dr. Kerr's role in crafting and implementing the black lung benefits program and the way that this legislation laid the foundation for the Occupational Safety and Health Act.

Keywords: Occupational Health,

Related Web page: www.umwa.org

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.