Silent Spring
In the 1960s, Mazzocchi was one of the first labor leaders to begin building strong ties with the environmental movement, an effort which paid off in the passage of major federal worker legislation. In 1962, he read Rachel Carson's book, "Silent Spring." Mazzocchi reasoned that if small doses of the chemicals discussed in "Silent Spring" caused harm, the workers who received large doses in manufacturing plants must be in medical danger.