Archival Finding Aids

Title

Santa Clara Center for Occupational Health (SCCOSH) and Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition (SVTC) Collection

Dates

1978-2002 (Bulk 1982-1995)

Collection Number

MSS-2007-04-06

Abstract

The Santa Clara Center for Occupational Health (SCCOSH) and Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition (SVTC) Collections, 1978-2002 (bulk 1982-1995), document the history of SCCOSH and SVTC. SCCOSH grew from the efforts of three women's health and labor rights organizers, Robin Baker, Amanda Hawes, and Pat Lamborn, who had come to focus on the Valley's largely unrepresented working-class minorities in the late 1970s. SCCOSH organized various campaigns in the fields of workers' rights advocacy and occupational safety and health training, particularly within the Silicon Valley electronics industries. At the outset, SCCOSH envisioned itself as representing three constituencies: local labor unions and labor councils, ill and injured workers, and community residents affected by wildfire industrial development of the Santa Clara Valley since the mid-1970s. The Silicon Valley Toxic Coalition (SVTC) developed from a SCCOSH project into a wide-ranging, independent nonprofit organization founded by Ted Smith (1945-), attorney and activist in 1982 in response to the suspicion that leaks at manufacturing sites for IBM and Fairchild Electronics were causing health issues in nearby Silicon Valley homes. The SVTC is a San José, California-based research and advocacy group that promotes safe environmental practices in the high tech industry. The records of SCCOSH and SVTC consist of administrative files, correspondence, research, publications, official reports, newspaper clippings, photographs, notes, congressional testimony, and legislative material concerning these organizations and their mission to reduce toxins and hazardous waste in the Silicon Valley. This collection is arranged into 15 series: Series I: SCCOSH, Activism, 1976-2002; Series II: SCCOSH, Workplace Hazard Files, 1978-1999; Series III: SCCOSH, Administrative Files, 1978-2001; Series IV: SCCOSH, Legal Case Files, 1980-1998; Series V: SVTC, Model Hazardous Materials Storage, 1981-1986; Series VI: SVTC, Groundwater Cleanup, 1981-1997; Series VII: SVTC Toxic Gas Model Ordinance, 1982-1997; Series VIII: SVTC, Administrative Files, 1982-1999; Series IX: SVTC, Founder Ted Smith, 1983-1995; Series X: SVTC, United Technologies Corporation, 1984-1995; Series XI: SVTC, Toxics Coordinating Project, 1985-1990; Series XII: SVTC, Tanner Bill, 1986-1991; Series XIII: SVTC, Stanford University/Biotechnology Activism, 1987-1991; Series XIV: SVTC, Earth Day, 1987-1993; and Series XV: Newspaper Articles, 1987-1997.

Indexing Terms

Note: This finding aid may be out of date. Please find the most current finding aid at the Online Archive of California.

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.

California--Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition--History
California--Tanner Bill
California--Stanford University--History
Electronics--industries
Employee rights
Environmental justice
Globalization
Hawes, Amanda
Hernandez, Alida
Santa Clara--Occupational Health
Santa Clara--Santa Clara Center for Occupational Health--History
Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition--Ted Smith (1945- )
Smith, Ted (1945-)

Document Type

Finding Aid

Upload Date

2010

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