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Occupational Health

Occupational Health. Module 1 – History of Occupational Health. Overview. What is occupational health? Historical figures in occupational health. What is it?. Occupational health is: Part of public health Assuring people are safe at work Preserving and protecting human resources

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Occupational Health

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  1. Occupational Health Module 1 – History of Occupational Health

  2. Overview • What is occupational health? • Historical figures in occupational health

  3. What is it? • Occupational health is: • Part of public health • Assuring people are safe at work • Preserving and protecting human resources • Multidisciplinary approach to recognition, diagnosis, treatment and prevention and control of work-related diseases, injuries and other conditions

  4. What is it? • The bottom line – making sure people go home from work will all their fingers and toes, and that they have not been exposed to anything that will adversely affect their health • Your job should NOT make you sick!

  5. Historical Figures in Occupational Health History

  6. Dangerous Professions as Punishment "In that direction," the Cat said, waving its right paw round, "lives a Hatter: and in that direction," waving the other paw, "lives a March Hare. Visit either you like: they're both mad." "But I don't want to go among mad people," Alice remarked. "Oh, you can't help that," said the Cat: "we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad." Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll.

  7. History • Code of Hammurabi • 2000 B.C. ancient Babylonians • Contains clauses for dealing with injuries, and monetary damages for those who injured others • “If a man has caused the loss of a gentleman’s eye, his own eye shall be caused to be lost.” • LaDou, J. (1986). Introduction to Occupational safety and Health. Chicago: National Safety Council, p.28.

  8. Hippocrates (470 to 410 B.C.) • Greek physician • Father of Medicine (Hippocratic oath) • Believed in rest, good diet, exercise and cleanliness • Observed lead poisoning among miners

  9. Pliny the Elder (23 – 79 A.D.) • Roman senator, writer and scientist • Dangers related to zinc and sulfur • First to recommend respiratory protection • Miners should cover their mouths with an animal bladder

  10. Georgius Agricola (1494-1555) • Wrote De Re Metallica – mining, smelting and refining • Need for ventilation and fresh air in mines • Environmental contamination • Management techniques (shift work) • Ergonomics, mechanical lift processes • Butter is antidote for lead toxicity • Goat’s bladder is used as respiratory protection

  11. Georgius Agricola • Described the following symptoms of arsenic and cadmium “…there is found in the mines black pompholyx, which eats wounds and ulcers to the bone; this also corrodes iron…these is a certain kind of cadmia which eats away at the feet of workmen when they have become wet, and similarly their hands, and injures their lungs and eyes.”

  12. Paracelsus (1493-1591) • "All substances are poisons; there is none which is not a poison. The right dose differentiates a poison and a remedy." Von der Besucht, Paracelsus, 1567 • Father of Toxicology • Established concepts of acute and chronic toxicity

  13. Bernardino Ramazzini (1633-1714) • Wrote Diseases of Workers • Urged physicians to ask “Of what trade are you?” as part of medical evaluation • Related occupational diseases to handling of harmful materials or unnatural movements of the body • Father of Occupational Medicine

  14. Percival Pott (1713-1788) • Identified relationship between an occupation (chimney sweep), a toxin (poly-aromatic hydrocarbons) and malignancy (testicular cancer).

  15. Chimney Sweeps

  16. Alice Hamilton • Champion of social responsibility • Investigated the cause and effect of worker illness • Interviewed workers in their homes and at their dangerous jobs • Reviewed the evaluation and control of industrial hazards such as lead and silica • Founder of Industrial Hygiene • Wrote Exploring the Dangerous Trades • First woman named to Harvard Medical School staff

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