2 - Man's Work and His Health

Abstract

This chapter discusses the responsibility of health services toward community health. An industry may have adverse effects on the health of neighboring communities through the discharge of toxic effluents into the atmosphere, into water, and onto land. While it is primarily the responsibility of health services outside industry to see that such hazards are controlled, the occupational physician and hygienist can ensure that such risks to community health never arise or at least are reduced to a minimum. Everyone responsible for the medical care of patients needs to realize that work may give rise to occupational disease or exacerbate nonoccupational disease and that a patient's illness may reduce his or her ability to work efficiently and safely. The occupational physician and hygienist have a responsibility to the community at large for the maintenance of hygiene standards to prevent pollution or contamination of the environment, viewing the factory as an ecosystem and ensuring that effluent from it does not disturb, damage, or destroy the delicately balanced ecology of the area.