William Steiger Memorial Award

The William Steiger Memorial Award honors individuals from the social/political sphere whose efforts have contributed to advancements in occupational safety and health. Earl Dotter, Photojournalist, is being honored as this year's Steiger Award recipient for making such contributions.

Mr. Dotter received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Graphic Design from San Jose State University in 1967. With the encouragement of his faculty advisor in Graphic Design, he enrolled in the Advertising and Photography program of the School of Visual Arts in New York City. It was here that his interest in photography received its first recognition.

Mr. Dotter has spent his career creating visual surveys of occupational and environmental health related photographs that span the implementation of OSHA, the Coal Mine Health & Safety Act, the Cotton Dust Standard, the transformation of our industrial economy to service jobs, the emergence of ergonomics, environmentalism and the post 9/11 impact on our workplaces.

His works include early photographs published on two New York Magazine covers; pictures of the urban crisis taken after Martin Luther King's assassination, which appeared in the final revival issue of The Saturday Evening Post; photographs of coal miners and their serious health and safety concerns in the wake of West Virginia's Farmington Mine Disaster; THE QUIET SICKNESS: A Photographic Chronicle of Hazardous Work in America exhibit and his book published by AIHA Press to accompany the exhibit on a tour of the six New England states, sponsored by The Harvard School of Public Health; The Price of Fish and When Duty Calls, exhibits that resulted from his receipt of an Alicia Patterson Foundation Fellowship; and OUR FUTURE IN RETROSPECT? Coal Miner Health in Appalachia: Photographs by Russell Lee 1946 and Earl Dotter 2006, an exhibit that contrasts the photos taken by Russell Lee of coal miners' health and safety immediately after WWII with those taken a lifetime later in 2006 by Earl Dotter. The latter exhibit will be on display in Philadelphia at the 2007 American Industrial Hygiene Conference and Exposition (AIHce).

ACGIH^® is pleased to honor Mr. Dotter as the recipient of this year's William Steiger Memorial Award. The Steiger Award will be presented at the Opening Session of AIHce on Monday, June 4, 2007 in the Pennsylvania Convention Center Ballroom.

Previous Award Recipients

1979 — Congressman David R. Obey
1982 — George Taylor (AFL–CIO)
1983 — Edgar L. McGowan, Commissioner of Labor, South Carolina
1984 — Gershon W. Fishbein, Editor, Occupational Health and Safety Letter
1985 — Congressman Joseph M. Gaydos of Pennsylvania
1986 — William G. Philips
1987 — Sheldon Samuels, Director, Health, Safety and Environment, Industrial Union Department, AFL–CIO
1988 — Senator Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia
1989 — Richard F. Boggs, Vice President of Organization Resources Counselors, Inc.
1990 — Joseph A. Kinney, Executive Director of The National Safe Workplace Institute
1991 — David P. Rall, M.D., Ph.D., Director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (1971–1990) and Director of the National Toxicology Program (1978–1990)
1992 — Molly J. Coye, M.D., Director of the Department of Health Services of the State of California
1993 — J. Donald Millar, M.D., D.T.P.H. (Lond.), the Assistant Surgeon General and Director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
1994 — Eula Bingham, Ph.D., Professor of Environmental Health; past Director of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration
1995 — Margaret Seminario, Director of Occupational Safety and Health for the AFL–CIO
1996 — James Merchant, M.D. of the University of Iowa, College of Medicine and Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa
1997 — J. Davitt McAteer, Assistant Secretary for the U.S. Labor Department s Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) and Andrea M. Hricko, Deputy Assistant Secretary for MSHA
1998 — Linda Rae Murray, M.D., MPH, Winfield Moody Health Center
1999 — Gerald F. Scannell, Director, National Safety Council; previously Director of the Office of Standards in the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), and Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA
2000 — Phil Landrigan, MD, Mount Sinai Medical Center
2001 — James Melius, M.D., Dr.P.H.
2002 — Congressman George Miller (D-CA) and Congressman Major R. Owens (D-NY)
2003 — Brian Davies, CIH
2004 — John Howard, MD, MPH, JD, LLM
2005 — Ernest Mastromatteo, C.D., M.D., D.P.H., D.I.H., F.A.B.P.M. (Occ Med), C.C.B.O.M., M.F.O.M. (London)
2006 — Charles E. Adkins, CIH

2007 Awardee

Previous Award Recipients