Document dYrGxO1N24ZJ2aoaBBDqn2Mwe
Industrial hygiene Plgt
December, 1962
(moving Md nonmoving), 46 persons in Accident* "while at work**, 107 periont in home acci dent*, and 73 pertont per l,0Q0 population in accidents classified In the "other** category, which consists principally of therapeutic misadventures, and accidents occurring in public places such as schools, places of recreation, stores, and offices. The remaining 2 persona per 1,000 population were injured in accidents of "unknown" class. Among the total person* Injured, 12 million, or 27%, were involved in accidents described as falls. About 4 million of these accidents resulting in injury were falls on stairs, steps, or from a height. Approxi mately 23% of the 45 million persons Injured had one or more days of bed disability associ ated with the injury.
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INDUSTRIAL MEDICAL PRACTICE
1114 The Beginnings of Industrial Medicine in England. H. Buess. Brit. J. Ind. Med. 19, 297-302 (Oct. 1962).
Industrial medicine saw its tentative beginnings among the inquiring minds of the
16th century physicians such as Paracelsus. In the l?tb century, reports of conditions In
mines on the Continent prompted natural scientists at the Royal Society to initiate a research
program into what we now know as mercurial poisoning. The latter part of the eighteenth
century witnessed the change from domestic to factory industry with its noncomitaot social,
economic, and technological upheaval, .resulting in great shifts of population away from the
countryside-to the towns. Men, women, and children were employed in the new factories in
primitive, unhygienic conditions, and mill fever and illness generally were rife. It was
against this background that Percival and Thackrah prompted no doubt in Urge measure by
Vi the conditions of child labor, inquired into, and made recommendations for, the improvement of hygiene in the factories, thus isying the foundations of industrial medicine aa we know it
today.
-- Author* a abat.
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1115 Guide to Small Plant Occupational Health Programs. American Medical Association. Council
on Occupational Health. Arch. EnvlronmentalHealth 5, 383-392 (Oct. 1962).
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The objectives of any good occupational health program, whether It servea a plant of 50,000 employees tgr a plant of 50 or fewer employees, are the same; namely, those sta
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ted clearly in ths American Medical Association statement on "Scope, Objectives, and Func tions of Occupational Health Program*" and listed in the introduction of ibis guide. Activities undertaken to attain these objectives vary greatly, however, from one small plant to another.
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The small plant is likely not to be in a position to hire even a full-time nurse, let alone a full
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time physician or industrial hygienist. Most small plants can obtain and afford the services
of a physician and industrialist hygienist on a part-time or on-call basis, particularly through
banding together with other plants and engaging such personnel cooperatively. Although the
plant enjoys only a part-time service of a physician or the services of a nurse supervised by
a physician, Its occupational health program should include plant visits by the physician no
matter how email the plant is. The individual physician, prohibited as he is in personally
soliciting practice, should use the good oftices of his local medical society in promoting
small plant occupational health programs in cooperation with management, labor, and inter
ested community agencies.
1116 Medical Services at Airports, A Study of the Need for Comprehensive Medical Programs at Large Airports. H. L. Reigbard. Arch. Environmental Health 3, 344-357 (Oct. 1962).
The value of medical program a in improving the performance and effectiveness of employees in industry is well known and has been extensively demonstrated. Airport popu lations constitute sizable industrial communities. The nature of the operations conducted has important implications for the safety of air operations. Employers at the airport studied