Læknablaðið - 15.11.1980, Blaðsíða 15

LÆKNABLADID
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Table 2. Health of working population.
Health factors of work and work environment may
cause or contribute to:
1. Accidents
2. Occupational diseases
3. Non-occupational diseases: higher morbidity in
occupational groups,
E. G. exposure to CS2: cardiovascular diseases,
Heavy physical work: Back diseases.
4. Psychosomatic diseases — stress at work
5. Mental health disorders, resulting in alienation,
high sickness absence,
high labour turnover, etc.
6. Precursors of diseases
7. Unnecessary fatigue — adjustment of work to
man
Table 3. Changes in the work environment.
Mechanization Industry, forestry, agriculture, transport overload from perception and information Underload Monotony
Chemical toxic Substances New processes, New substances
Combined stress Peak loads, fixed postures, toxic substances, noise, vibration, high speed
Continuous changes of production methods
Structural changes Small units to large factories, small villages to large cities
Table 4. Working changes in the population.
Age More middle-aged & elderly
Sex More women
Morbidity Less infectious diseases, more psychosomatic diseases
Job Expectations Earlier offers limited to adequate income, basic safety & health, during the last decades also less fatigue, comfort, job satisfaction, meaningful job, influence, participate in planning.
population. Therefore the »host factor«, the
individual sensitivity or resistance will be of
increasing importance in the future. It is
important to study the mechanism of individ-
ual sensitivity, such as enzyme deficiency,
allergy, etc.
There has also been a great interest in
establishing maximum allowable concentra-
tions for toxic substances as a guide for
preventive work.
Another problem that will be very impor-
tant in the future will be Occupational Mental
Health. There are many stressors at work and
there are new demands of the working popu-
lation from the work, such as job satisfaction,
a meaningful job and an influence upon the
design of their own job. The subjective
symptom and feeling and job attitude should
be considered more than before as these will
give valuable information on the working
conditions and on how these can be improved.
The ageing workers and their job adjust-
ment are an important problem of Occupa-
tional Health in many countries. There are
many old people at work, lor instance, in
many occupations more than 50 % are over
50 years of age. They have in some aspects a
reduced reserve capacity, but they have many
postitive aspects concerning experience, loyal-
ty towards the job and the working group, low
labour turnover, low rate of absence and so
on. Therefore individual placement, ergono-
mics and job readjustment for the elderly and
occupational health services are very impor-
tant to promote the health of the ageing
workers and their adjustment to work.
IV. Some different approaches to
Occupational Health to-day.
According to the broad definition of Occupati-
onal Health now generally accepted there will
be more inter- disciplinary studies in Occupa-
tional Health, a teamwork of physicians,
nurses, engineers, chemists, psychologists and
physiologists.
There is one aspect concerning occupatio-
nal diseases which should be considered. The
serious cases are getting more rare and early
diagnosis is more important than before. New
methods are developed and the diagnosis at
an early stage can be made at different levels.
One can diagnose the biological effects of
toxic substances before the disease has occur-
red, as with ALA-tests in lead intoxications or