Occupational Health Module 1 – History of Occupational Health.
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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 healthAssuring people are safe at workPreserving and protecting human resourcesMultidisciplinary approach to recognition,
diagnosis, treatment and prevention and control of work-related diseases, injuries and other conditions
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!
Historical Figures in Occupational Health History
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.
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.
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
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
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
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.”
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
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
Percival Pott (1713-1788)
Identified relationship between an occupation (chimney sweep), a toxin (poly-aromatic hydrocarbons) and malignancy (testicular cancer).
Chimney Sweeps
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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