Occupational Health Approach Research Articles

The concordance of pollution prevention and occupational health and safety: a perspective on U.S. policy.

Occupational health and pollution prevention, although conceptually linked by the common goals of preventing exposure to toxic materials and lowering risk functions, have been largely confined to separate patterns of practice and professional development. Some analysts see this as a missed opportunity for synergy and raising the level of protection afforded to both the worker and the ambient environment. By using current specific examples we show how strategies that integrate pollution prevention and occupational health practices can be effective at reducing chemical exposures and environmental releases beyond the levels normally achieved using traditional methods alone. Similarities in approaches to addressing chemical hazards at the source, are analyzed in the context of U.S. policy and recent state and federal initiatives. Results obtained from the analysis of multi-pathway risks found within the automotive refinishing sector serve as examples of how best to select engineering and control strategies. Industry survey, metal speciation, and methylene chloride usage data from studies conducted in Rhode Island, coupled with case reports from other settings, demonstrate that opportunities exist to concurrently mitigate multiple environmental and occupational health hazards. The collaborative initiatives undertaken in the automotive refinishing industry sector demonstrate that an integrated environmental and occupational health approach can more effectively address multiple chemical releases and workplace exposures. Such synergy should be advanced in the future by similar integrative and collaborative strategies.

Recent State and Future Scope of Occupational Health in Japan

Recent State and Future Scope of Occupational Health in Japan: Toshiteru Okubo. Occupational Health Training Center, University of Occupational and Environmental Health, Japan—The most significant characteristic of the working population of Japan is aging. The increase in the senior population puts substantial pressure on the health insurance and pension systems and many health insurance organizations have decided to cut down voluntary programs on occupational health. The nature of occupational diseases has changed from health impairments caused by a single prominent occupational factor to unspecific health problems caused by the combinedeffect of both occupational and non‐ occupational factors. Diseases occurring through this mechanism are called work‐related diseases, in contrast to typical occupational diseases. It is no longer effective to simply remove a single hazardous environmental factor, as has been the major approach in occupational health. A comprehensive approach is more important than ever. Health promotion in the work place is therefore one of the most important services in Japan. Along with the improvement of the work environment, workers’ values regarding labor have also changed and they seek working conditions better than the threshold level to prevent health hazards11) . Under these conditions the basic concept of occupational health should not be limited to only minimizing the minus health effects, but it should introduce the idea of seeking positive health. Positive health always seeks to improve health from any level, but up to now medical science has paid very little attention to positive health and there is lack of knowledge and experience. The highest priority of research in this field is therefore to be found in the development of positive health indicators.

Epidemiology: An Investigative Approach in Occupational Health

Epidemiology: An Investigative Approach in Occupational Health

Italian occupational health: concepts, conflicts, implications.

This paper examines Italy's worker-based model for occupational health, especially its key concepts and its relation to social conflict. It briefly reviews the history of three approaches to occupational health in Italy: university-based, industry-based, and government-based. It then analyzes the worker-based approach, which emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s as worker groups and trade unions mobilized around new concepts of occupational health. Five key concepts are discussed: the workers' homogeneous group; workers' subjectivity; the use of contract language; the development of local occupational health institutions; and the use of occupational hazard risk maps. The analysis illustrates how the social processes of mobilization and institutionalization affected the ideas and structures of Italian occupational health. Worker mobilization in Italy produced ideological changes in the nation's occupational health system, institutional changes in universities and governments, and legislative changes at national and local levels. The institutionalization of reforms, however, created new conflicts and problems and tended to restrict worker participation and promote expert intervention. The paper concludes with a brief outline of the history of occupational health approaches in the United States and then discusses the implications of the five Italian concepts for US occupational health policy.

On the Health Care of Vibration Syndrome as Community Occupational Health Approach

On the Health Care of Vibration Syndrome as Community Occupational Health Approach