Professional Documents
Culture Documents
13intro Occupational Health - Med19
13intro Occupational Health - Med19
– Ramazzini
occupations;
- effect of work on health PREVENTION
ill-health
of ASSESSMENT of
workability
• the prevention amongst workers of departures from health
- effects of health on work
caused by their working conditions; HEALTH HEALTH
promotion
• the protection of workers in their employment from risks - vast majority of health problems are not caused by work
resulting from factors adverse to health; - most health problems can influence an individual’s ability
• the placing and maintenance of the worker in an to work, or their performance at work
occupational environment adapted to his physiological and
psychological capabilities; and Principles of occupational health:
• to summarise, the adaptation of work to the workers and of • prevent ill-health due to work
each worker to his or her job’. • prevent pre-existing medical conditions from
Joint ILO/WHO Committee on Occupational Health, First Session (1950) being aggravated by work
revised by 12th Session (1995)
Occupational health Occupational safety Occupational disease: disease having a specific or a strong
relation to occupation, generally with only one causal agent, and
recognised as such.
Occupational medicine Occupational hygiene
Clinical specialty which deals with the Applied science concerned with the Work-related disease: disease with multiple causal agents,
diagnosis, management and identification, measurement and
where factors in the work environment may play a role, together
prevention of ill-health due to appraisal of risk, and with control to
workplace factors and the assessment acceptable standards of physical, with other risk factors, in the development of such disease,
of effects of illness on work. chemical and biological factors arising which has a complex aetiology.
from the workplace which may affect
the health or well-being of those at Disease affecting working populations: disease without
work or in the community. causal relationship with work, but which may be aggravated by
occupational hazards to health.
CRITERIA FOR DIAGNOSING OCCUPATIONAL CRITERIA FOR DIAGNOSING OCCUPATIONAL
DISEASES DISEASES
• minimum intensity of exposure
1. Effect - fit to the description of the disease • minimum duration of exposure
2. Exposure - documented by: • maximum latency period
• occupational history (chronology) exposure
• minimum induction period
• examination (marks of exposure)
• investigation (environmental, biological 4
and biological effect monitoring)
2
3. Time sequence - cause → effect
0 time
4. Competing causes - balance
Exposure Preclinical phase Clinical phase
Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2015 Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2010
Recommended literature:
• Aw TC, Gardiner K, Harrington JM. Occupational Health:
Pocket Consultant (5th ed.), Blackwell, Oxford, 2007. Thank you for your attention.
• Levy BS, Wegman DH. Occupational Health. 3rd ed, Boston:
Little, Brown and Company, 1995.
• International Labour Organization. Encyclopaedia of
Occupational Health and Safety. Online edition, ILO, 2012,
available at: http://www.iloencyclopaedia.org