Thalidomide, asbestos, DDT, commercial fishing, logging, industrial agriculture’s dependence on phosphate, western nations entirely addicted to oil … there are plenty of examples.

The overall positive trend is slowing down, with life expectancy in the USA dropping, mostly due to the opioid epidemic.

Overall the picture is pretty grim. Long term stability of civilisation is under threat due to fertility rates not falling fast enough to offset longevity. Food production is consuming limited non-renewable resources.

Health and safety typically increase in response to workers advocating for additional health and safety. Those increases were won in spite of the system not because of it.

Noam Chomsky makes the following point: Slave societies also exhibited improvements over time. It wasn't an argument for slavery.

Sure, but comparing the virtual slave state of North Korea with the prosperity of South Korea is a pretty good argument for freedom and against slavery.

Do you have some examples of societies that radically increased their overall health and safety without adopting liberal economic policies? Cuba, maybe?

This is a very reasonable question, but I think this is too off topic from this article to comply with HN's guidelines as it verges on more general questions. The latest issue of Jacobin does compare the Cuban health system to the US health system and to the Dominican Republic if you're interested, but it's print/subscriber only. SK and NK are too complex to be analyzed under these textual constraints.