Education
Doctor Hardy completed her residency at Philadelphia General Hospital—one of the few hospitals to accept women students at the time.
(Book by Hamilton, Adrian, Hardy, H.L.)
Book by Hamilton, Adrian, Hardy, H.L.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0884160297/?tag=2022091-20
Doctor Hardy completed her residency at Philadelphia General Hospital—one of the few hospitals to accept women students at the time.
Her main points of study were toxicology and environmental related illness. She died on October 13, 1993 of cancer of the immune system at Massachusetts General Hospital. She then went to work for Northfield School educating the female students on how to cope with such traumatic issues as rape, drownings, and student accidents.
She also taught the girls anatomy and the effects of venereal disease.
After five years at Northfield Academy, she began working in a field that would become a significant area of study for her throughout her career. Her studies on beryllium began in 1945 when she started working for the Massachusetts Division of Occupational Medicine.
She studied factories that produced fluorescent bulbs in Lynn, Salem, and Ipswich, Massachusetts. She discovered that many of the workers contracted berylliosis.
Berylliosis is caused by the inhalation of dust or fumes containing beryllium.
The disease presents itself with coughing, weight loss, shortness of breath, and scarring of the lungs. While beryllium was a main area of study for Doctor Hardy, throughout her career, she also studied anthrax, mercury poisoning, women"s growth, and physical fitness. Throughout her career, Doctor Hardy worked on a variety of studies and projects around the world.
Below are just a few of her more notable contributions to science and medicine:
At Massachusetts Institute of Technology: led the occupational medicine service.
At Dartmouth College: coordinated the study of industrial diseases
At the Atomic Energy Commission in Los Alamos, New Mexico: studied the hazards of nuclear energy. At Massachusetts General Hospital: created the United States. Beryllium Case Registry in 1952.
Served on numerous committees including the United Mine Workers, the Coal Workers" Safety Board, National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, and the International Labor Organization.
Dr. Hardy was the first woman to be appointed associate clinical professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. She founded the National Beryllium Registry, one of the first registries to collect long-term data on a chronic health disorder. In 1954 she was among the first scientists to identify a link between asbestos and cancer. She also researched the harmful effects of benzene, and as a result of her findings the highest permissible concentration of the hydrocarbon used in industry was reduced by fifty percent. In 1955 Hardy was named Woman of the Year by the American Medical Women's Association.
(Book by Hamilton, Adrian, Hardy, H.L.)
