Human Stories of Sustainability within the Fashion Industry: Looking at the history of my chosen multiples object, Syringes

Scottish doctor Alexander Wood is credited with inventing the modern hypodermic syringe in 1853. His goal was to treat pain in just one area of the body.Syringes were invented long before hypodermic needles. Their origins are found in Greek and Roman literature where there are descriptions of hollow reeds for the ritual of anointing the body with oil, and as musical instruments using a plunger to alter the pitch. Simple piston syringes for delivering ointments and creams for medical use were described by Galen (129-200 CE) and an Egyptian, Ammar bin Ali al-Mawsili, reported using glass tubes to apply suction for cataract extraction from about 900 CE. In 1650, Pascal’s experimental work in hydraulics stimulated him to invent the first modern syringe which allowed the infusion of medicines.

A syringe has three elements, the barrel (glass, plastic or metal), the plunger and the piston which may be of rubber, mineral, metal or synthetic material but in early examples waxed linen tape or asbestos was wound on a reel to obtain a watertight seal. Alexander Wood in Edinburgh combined a functional syringe with a hypodermic needle in the same year, to inject morphine into humans and probably should be credited with inventing the technique. The basic design has remained unchanged though interchangeable parts and the use of plastic resulted in the almost universal use of disposable syringes and needles since the mid-1950s. An advantage of the syringe method is that blood appears in the hub when the vein has been entered. A disadvantage of the syringe method is that there is the potential for needle stick when depositing blood into the collection tube.

Syringes and needles are a powerful and double-edged symbol. On one hand, they can deliver life-saving medicine quickly and effectively. A contaminated syringe is incredibly dangerous, and can infect doctors and other healthcare professionals with the very diseases they are fighting against. Syringes and needles also become tools of death, as the soldiers headed by Jerry Jaxx use them to lethally inject the Ebola-infected monkeys in Reston. Syringes and needles thus represent the simultaneous benefits and dangers of human technology

https://medicine.uq.edu.au/blog/2018/12/history-syringes-and-needles

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