These must see videos were passed in from Health and Safety Activist Jordan Barab.

The Laborers Newsletter, Lifelines, reports that three classic must-see workplace safety videos have appeared on Google Video. Check them out.

Can't Take No More, 1979 (27 minutes). This quick paced history of occupational health and safety in the U.S. from the Industrial Revolution to the 1970s, narrated by Studs Terkel, was produced by OSHA and distributed in 1980.

In 1981, the newly-elected Reagan Administration's OSHA recalled the film and destroyed most copies. Organizations receiving OSHA training grants were threatened with a loss of funding if they showed this film to workers. Rare archival footage and photos touch on some of the major issues responsible for dramatic tragedies as well as on the day-to-day dangers that cause long-term health problems. It also connects the health and safety movement with the civil rights and environmental movements.

When one considers what this agency has turned into, it's amazing to see what it was once capable of. It's one of the first films I remember seeing when I first started working in this field.

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Stop Silicosis, 1938 (12 minutes). In the aftermath of the Hawk's Nest Tunnel tragedy in the 1930s, the U.S. Department of Labor released this film aimed at preventing the occupational disease of silicosis. Most of the information and prevention measures in this film are still relevant today. It wasn't until 34 years after this film was made that OSHA was created and established a legal silica standard -- based on ACGIH's 1962 Threshold Limit.

But that standard has been known to be inadequate for many years. Silicosis still threatens worker health. According to OSHA, over 2 million workers are exposed to crystalline silica dust in general industry, construction and maritime industries. The silica standard is one of the many standards that this administration is supposedly working on, but repeatedly postpones -- 37 years after OSHA was created and the current inadequate standard became law .

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Alice Hamilton, 1988 (12 minutes). This NIOSH video honors Alice Hamilton, M.D., "the first American physician to devote her life to the practice of industrial medicine." She pioneered occupational epidemiology and industrial hygiene in the United States beginning with investigations of lead poisoning among enamellers of bathtubs. Her findings were so scientifically persuasive that they caused sweeping reforms, both voluntary and regulatory, to reduce occupational exposure to lead. In 1919, Dr. Hamilton was appointed assistant professor of industrial medicine at Harvard Medical School, becoming the first woman on the faculty of Harvard University.

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Finally, for lovers of fine music, performance art and pandemic flu, "Can't Help Catching The Deadly Flu" (with apologies to Elvis) from last year's APHA conference is on Google Video -- now with subtitles so you won't miss a single word.

Other short clips on occupational safety and health are also available. These can be located by clicking on one of the films above and then clicking on the "from user" link just below the film description in the right-hand column of the viewing page.

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Jordan Barab