GENERAL CONSIDERATION
Definition
That branch of hygiene dealing with industries is of very great importance. This will be readily recognized when we consider that practically the entire population is involved in some sort of gainful occupation.
Industrial hygiene is concerned in creating conditions in industry which will prevent accidents, promote public and personal health by eliminating adverse influences, and in creating environmental conditions which will prolong the worker’s life by improving the conditions under which he labors. Public health, mortality and morbidity are influenced more by the environmental conditions in the occupations than by any other factor in human life. At least two-thirds of the entire human life is spent in some occupation and the danger of life, limb and health is well known to all.
The various industries differ largely in their effects upon the workers, the mortality in some being greater than in others; accidents are more numerous in some than others, some occupations being more hazardous. Some dis-eases occur more frequently in certain occupations. The environment may necessitate a greater adaptation in one part of the body than in another; a very dusty work, for example, will affect the respiratory tract while another occupation will affect a different part of the body.
Effect of Occupation upon Health
It is obvious that occupations have a certain effect upon the adaptative processes of the body as well as producing traumatic conditions from accidents, which result in total or partial disability, sudden death, or acute or chronic conditions from poisoning for example. In the industries there may be such adverse environments as to draw so heavily upon the adaptative forces that the body will be reduced to a greatly weakened state. The personal health of the individual enters as a conditioning factor, as well as do his peculiarities and personal weaknesses.
Personal Factors
The individual with low vitality, poor nutrition and poor elimination will be affected to a greater extent in some occupations than in others. The person with a subluxation at lung place, lessening the resistance of the tissues in this zone, will find that an occupation which necessitates breathing air laden with dust will affect the lungs because of their already weakened condition. Many accidents which jeopardize the health and life of workers result from carelessness or from a lack of knowledge about the devices employed.