"did any other market complain about worker safety or abuse or pollution and refuse to buy products?"

Now that we've progressed through industrialisation to a point where life expectancy has dramatically improved, along with living conditions and all the rest, it's given us a point of comparison.

Countries that are going through an industrialisation phase aren't being criticised in comparison to a pre-industrialisation state, they're being criticised in comparison to what other post-industrialised countries have achieved. Sure, it's an unfair comparison, but the first time around, that comparison didn't exist.

What gives you the illusion that other nations are more respectful of worker rights than the US/EU was in the past?

China's cities are poisoned with smog today, for just one example.