The Importance Of Occupational Medicine

1570 Words7 Pages

Occupational Medicine is a specialty related to the multifaceted relationship between health and work and the occupational health physician achieves this through diligent observation of work and processes, application of clinical knowledge, and relevant laboratory investigations. The occupational health physician is a highly trained specialist, who leads the occupational health multidisciplinary team, who provides a wide range of services relating to health of persons at work (workers) of an industry (factory). The threads that maintain the fabric of the services are Preservation, Prevention and Protection, and Promotion, achieved through medical monitoring and environmental monitoring.
Table 1 broadly depicts the three areas, achieved through …show more content…

The fitness report is sent to the authorities, simply stating the person’s fitness or otherwise. The detailed documented health information is confidential and is a matter of trust between the physician and the person reviewed.
2. Prevention and Protection
Prevention is the avoidance of all hazards in the work place. However it is not always possible to totally eliminate all such hazards. Therefore protection through various means is also important to ensure good health for the …show more content…

2.1. Routine Physical Examination
Routine physical examination is done as for preplacement examination, specifically looking for the signs peculiar to the specific hazard’s health effects. E.g. looking for cataract in persons at work exposed to IR rays or UV rays, audiometry for persons at work exposed to noise.
The frequency of periodic medical examination will depend on the hazard to which the person at work is exposed, the period, quality and quantity of exposure and the age of the person, for example,
• As per Model Rule 77 under Factories Act, vision of locomotive or crane operators should be checked once every 12 months upto the age of 45 years, and once every 6 months beyond that age.
• Tamilnadu (India) Factory Rules Chapter IX, Section 95, Dangerous Operations, Schedule VI, requires persons involved in the manufacture of lead and certain compounds of lead to be periodically examined at intervals of not more than three months.
2.2. Biological Monitoring
Relevant biological monitoring and other tests are carried out. Some examples are shown in the Table 2. Table 2. Examples of Biological Monitoring tests and their

Open Document