I remember seeing the film and feeling discomfort when Hollywood misrepresented my job giving it its own self-serving spin. My subsequent work in occupational health and safety has made me sensitive to the way popular entertainment uses workplace issues to further the plots and develop the characters in its stories. I began to list films where the characters are affected by occupational hazards or workplace health and safety.  
    
The result is by no means comprehensive, but shows that health and safety is not a subject that fits neatly into the categories of thriller or science fiction or any other film genre. At best it is relevant subject matter and at its worst it is inconsequential to the needs of popular film culture. Indeed occupational safety issues shown in narrative film are used to set up its story and to define or develop its characters. Being used in this utilitarian manner means that occupational health and safety has a secondary role in art that I hope does not reflect modern society’s belief.  
    
I suspect the problem lies with the difficulty of acting out the most important moment in safety: prevention. The idea of prevention as a potential film subject is beyond Hollywood’s scope and interest because nothing tragic happens when an accident is prevented. It is not fertile story material for the performing arts because it does not have dramatic possibility; an accident prevented is really a positive non-event. If nothing bad happens it’s good for health and safety, not so good for movies. A careful search beneath the Hollywood glitz and glamour uncovers no understanding of prevention, and a little knowledge of workplace safety and the challenges faced everyday by workers and their employers.
    
The following, in no particular order, is my personal list of films that have incorporated some aspects of occupational health and safety events or issues into their storylines. In the interest of full disclosure, my critique of the films has a professional bias toward determining how effectively they have grasped basic safety ideas like prevention, risk control and the precautionary principle.

1.    Ace in the Hole (1951) Kirk Douglas plays a down on his luck journalist exploiting a story that will put him back on top: a man trapped underground after a mine collapse. The film’s theme though is not worker safety; it is media sensationalism. The man trapped is not even a worker at the mine but a local treasure hunter. Health and safety professionals will still agree with the film’s point that the media runs to a workplace only when tragedy strikes: if it doesn’t bleed, it doesn’t lead. Recent news headlines have included all kinds of bridge collapses, tower crane topplings and workers falling from heights; a few have dealt with in-depth investigations of workers suffering from occupational diseases, such as asbestosis and silicosis. 

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