Occupational Health and Diseases

Key points

• • Occupational health protects workers from illness and injury caused by their work, and studies the diseases that particular jobs can cause.
• • Breathing in mineral dusts over years causes the pneumoconioses, scarring lung diseases named after the dust: silicosis (silica), coal-worker's lung and asbestosis (asbestos).
• • Asbestos is especially dangerous because, besides scarring, it causes lung cancer and malignant mesothelioma, a cancer of the serosal linings (most often the pleura around the lung), often decades later.
• • Other occupational hazards are physical, such as loud noise causing deafness, and also vibration, heat and radiation.
• • Chemical hazards include poisoning by metals such as lead and mercury, and biological hazards include infections caught from animals or patients.
• • Prevention works best at the source (removing or enclosing the hazard), then by protecting the worker, with regular health checks to catch disease early.