Pocket Consultant

Occupational Health

Kerry Gardiner, David Rees, Anil Adisesh, David Zalk, J. Malcolm Harrington

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN:
  9781119718611
• Edition: 6
• eBook ISBN:
  9781119718628
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Occupational Therapy
• Index: Technology & Engineering

In the newly revised Sixth Edition of Pocket Consultant: Occupational Health, an accomplished and distinguished team of researchers and practitioners deliver a fully updated overview of current occupational health practices. The book offers a complete, international perspective that includes discussions of issues like migrant working populations, and new chapters on occupational exposure in different industries and specific processes. Special issues such as working hours and shift work, alcohol and drug use testing, eHealth, military populations, fatigue, and sleep disorders are also discussed at length. Readers will also find:

• A thorough introduction to occupational health, including people involved, the roles of occupational health professionals, industrial processes, and health outcomes
• Comprehensive explorations of occupational health services at an international level, occupational diseases, and occupational infections
• Practical discussions of clinical evaluations, including pre-employment placement, fitness for work, health assessments, health surveillance, and medical records
• Examinations of medicolegal report writing and the legal and ethical aspects of occupational health
• In-depth examinations of occupational toxicology, occupational hygiene, chemical/physical/biological/psychosocial hazards, and the principles of risk assessment and risk management along with the latest on control toolkits

Perfect for occupational hygienists, physicians, nurses, safety practitioners and anyone in a health and safety role, Pocket Consultant: Occupational Health will also earn a place in the libraries of general practitioners, medical students, nursing students, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, toxicologists, and occupational psychologists.

CHAPTER 1
Introduction

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1. 1.1 What is occupational health?
2. 1.2 Who is involved in occupational health?
3. 1.3 The world of work
4. 1.4 The world of people at work
5. 1.5 The roles of the occupational health professional
6. 1.6 Occupational health in modernity
7. 1.7 Summary

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1.1 What is occupational health?

Occupational health is a multifaceted and multidisciplinary activity concerned with the prevention of ill health in working populations. This involves a consideration of the two‐way relationship between work and health, wherein it is as much about the effects of the working environment on the health of workers as it is about the influence of the workers' state of health on their ability to perform the tasks for which they were engaged. The main aim of occupational health is to prevent, rather than cure, ill health from wherever it arises in the working environment.

A joint International Labour Organization/World Health Organization (ILO/WHO) Committee defined the subject back in 1950 as: ‘the promotion and maintenance of the highest degree of physical, mental and social wellbeing of workers in all occupations’.

The relationship between the worker and the world of work is, necessarily, complex (Figure 1.1). The worker brings to the place of work a pre‐existent health status influenced by many factors – only some of which are under the worker's direct control; hence, any disease/illness/outcome that manifests in the individual has to be viewed in this context. The health outcome could be caused by work, modulated by work or completely unrelated to it. Such a view of occupational health is, however, predominantly a medical model; albeit now the situation was and has been realised to be very much more complex.

1.2 Who is involved in occupational health?

Historically, occupational health has been viewed as a clinical subject, implying that the dominant roles in prevention should be played by the physician and the nurse. The ILO/WHO definition from 70 years ago is explicit that a broader and fully integrated perspective is essential.

Thus, the list of professionals involved is extensive and includes:

• occupational/industrial hygienists
• physicians
• nurses
• sociologists
• toxicologists
• psychologists
• health physicists
• microbiologists
• epidemiologists
• ergonomists
• engineers (including ventilation)
• safety practitioners and safety engineers
• work organisation specialists
• acousticians
• lawyers.

Yet, the ultimate responsibility for maintaining the health of the workforce rests with the employer and, to a lesser extent, with the employee. This is the way most health and safety law is formulated. On the basis of this model, one can begin to view those involved as an even broader group. The ‘stakeholders’ would thus include a number of groups who, although they may not be professionally responsible for ensuring the wellbeing of the workers, do have a crucial interest in the outcome (Figure 1.2).

FIGURE 1.1 The problems facing the occupational health practitioner attempting to establish a link between work and health. The new employee brings a legacy of genetic, social, dietary and environmental factors affecting health to the new workplace, which may influence their response to workplace hazards.

FIGURE 1.2 The occupational health stakeholders.

1.3 The world of work

The changing patterns of employment in the ‘world of work’ will have important and significant implications for the future make‐up and expertise of occupational health, as well as for the competence needed to deliver the goods. Across the world, the days of full‐time long‐term employment in one industry for a worker with one set of skills are rapidly disappearing. The main features for the future seem to be:

• fragmented industry (with materials sourced globally)hybrid working ‐ work and home
• smaller workforces
• more mobile employees
• waning influence of ‘organised labour’
• multiskilled workers
• greater use of subcontracted tasks
• less job stability
• less job security
• more part‐time work
• more flexible hours of work (zero hours contracts)
• more mechanised (and therefore possibly more dehumanised) workplaces.

1.4 The world of people at work

Today, certainly in high‐income and some middle‐income countries, occupational physicians see more illness but less disease. Although musculoskeletal disorders and stress‐related complaints dominate the scene, they too are interrelated, and both are subject to ‘somatising tendencies’ (presenting as physical symptoms related to different target organ systems). Thus, the new ‘age of existentialism’ is dominated by such conditions as:

• stress‐related disorders
• non‐specific effect modifiers
• post‐traumatic stress disorder
• chronic fatigue syndrome
• chronic somatising disorders
• multiple chemical sensitivity
• diffuse pain syndromes
• a combination of psychological, neurological and immunological issues.

1.5 The roles of the occupational health professional

In high‐income and some upper middle‐income countries, many of the ‘classic’ occupational diseases have been controlled or, at least, the means for controlling them are known. In fact, for many, the industries themselves have been closed and hence the incident cases have stopped – proof, if ever it were needed, of the relationship between exposure and disease. In such settings, the delivery of an effective occupational health service to employed peop...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Table of Contents
• Pocket Consultant
• Copyright
• FOREWORD
• CHAPTER 1: Introduction
• CHAPTER 2: Occupational Health Services – An International Perspective
• CHAPTER 3: Occupational Diseases
• CHAPTER 4: Occupational Infections
• CHAPTER 5: Clinical Evaluations
• CHAPTER 6: Occupational Toxicology
• CHAPTER 7: Occupational Cancer
• CHAPTER 8: Occupational Hygiene – Gases, Vapours, Dusts and Fibres
• CHAPTER 9: Physical Hazards – Light, Heat, Noise, Vibration, Pressure and Radiation
• CHAPTER 10: Musculoskeletal Disorders
• CHAPTER 11: Psychosocial Aspects of the Workplace
• CHAPTER 12: Risk Assessment
• CHAPTER 13: Risk Management
• CHAPTER 14: Principles of Occupational Epidemiology
• CHAPTER 15: Control of Airborne Contaminants
• CHAPTER 16: Personal Protection of the Worker
• CHAPTER 17: Tertiary Prevention
• CHAPTER 18: Special Issues in Occupational Health
• CHAPTER 19: Expert and Medicolegal Report Writing
• CHAPTER 20: Ethical Aspects of Occupational Health
• INDEX
• End User License Agreement