Occupational Health

1. PBH 3212 OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH
COURSE LECTURER/INSTRUCTOR:
HON. (DR.) ALIYU MUHAMMAD MAIGORO
MBBS(BUK), MPH(Malaya), MBA(BUK), FWACP, FRSPH
SENIOR CONSULTANT PUBLIC HEALTH PHYSICIAN
FEDERAL MEDICAL CENTRE AZARE, BAUCHI,
VISITING SENIOR LECTURER (DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC
HEALTH),
BAUCHI STATE UNIVERSITY GADAU &
FORMER HONOURABLE COMMISSIONER FOR HEALTH,
BAUCHI STATE, NIGERIA
DATE: THURSDAY, 27TH OCTOBER, 2022
10:00 – 12:00PM
1

2. COURSE OUTLINE
1. INTRODUCTION
2. HISTORY OF OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH
3. INTERACTION BETWEEN WORK AND
ENVIRONMENT
4. OCCUPATIONAL LUNG DISEASES
5. OCCUPATIONAL SKIN DISEASES
6. OCCUPATIONAL CANCERS
7. OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH SERVICES
8. HEALTH RISK ASSESSMENT/PRINCIPLES
OF HAZARD CONTROL

3. COURSE OUTLINE…..
9. OCCUPATIONAL POISONS (TOXICOLOGY)
10. OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH IN
AGRICULTURE
11. OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH & PHC
12. EPIDEMIOLOGY IN OCCUPATIONAL
HEALTH
13. PRE & PERIODIC MEDICAL EXAMINATION
14. OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH IN THE
PETROLEUM INDUSTRY
15. OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH LEGISLATIONS
16. REVISION

4. INTRODUCTION
 DEFINITIONS
 CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH
 GOALS/AIMS OF OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH
 OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND PUBLIC HEALTH
 THE BURDEN OF OCCUPATIONAL MORBIDITY AND
MORTALITY
 BARRIERS TO ACCURATE DIAGNOSIS OF
OCCUPATIONAL DISEASES

5. DEFINITION
 Occupational health is the study of the
interaction between Work and Health
 About half of man’s waking hours and a third
of his productive years are spent at work
 Work is therefore an essential ingredient of
life

6. DEFINITION…….
 WORK←------→HEALTH
 Positive
Income
Sense of well being
Social interaction
Contribution to the community
 Negative
ill health from work exposures
ill health from exposure to sick workers

7. DEFINITION…….
 Occupational health:
Is the promotion and maintenance of the
highest physical, mental, and social well-
being of workers in all occupations by
preventive departures from health,
controlling risks, and adapting of work to
people and people to their jobs.
(International Labour Organization and
WHO, 1950)

8. FATHER OF OCCUPATIONAL
HEALTH
 Bernardino Ramazzini (1633-1714)
 Italian Physician who worked in the late 1600s
and early 1700s
 Published the 1st systematic study on the
influence that work may have on health
 His book “De Morbis Artificum Diatriba”
(Diseases of Workers)
 In Nigeria, the Father of Occupational is Dr.
G.O. Sofoluwe

9. CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN OCCUPATIONAL
HEALTH
1. Technology transfer from industrial to developing
countries or areas within a country;
2. Child labor in developing and developed
countries;
3. Pesticide overuse, toxicity, and food
contamination;
4. Ecological damage from toxic wastes spills and
waste disposal;
5. Toxic waste transfer from industrial to developing
countries;
6. High technology industrial toxic wastes;
7. Nuclear energy, accidents, and wastes;

10. CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN OCCUPATIONAL
HEALTH…
8. Technological and professional common interest between
occupational and environmental health;
9. Poor safety and control standards in developing countries;
10. Poor wages, psychological stress, boredom, and shift
work;
11. Management negligence and lack of accountability for
workplace safety;
12. Governmental negligence and corruption in developing
regulatory role;
13. Inadequate health and safety measures in developing
countries;
14. Widening income gap between upper and lower income
groups

11. THE AIMS/GOALS OF OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH
 The ILO in 1950 defined the goals of
occupational health as follows:
1. The promotion and maintenance of the highest
degree of physical, mental and social well being
of workers in all occupations
2. The prevention among workers of departures
from health caused by their working conditions
3. The protection of workers in their employment
from risks resulting from factors adverse to health
4. The planning and maintenance of workers in an
occupational environment adapted to his
physiological equipment; and to summarize -the
adaptation of work to man, each man to his job

12. OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH & PUBLIC HEALTH
 Diseases related to occupations,
always an essential part of public
health, increasingly relate to
environmental health, but to other
fields as well
 The worker is also a member of a
family and a breadwinner, so that the
health of the worker is related to
family health

13. OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH & PUBLIC
HEALTH….
 The worker is concerned not only with
what happens at the place of employment
but also with hazardous agents he or she
might accidently bring home
 The retired or laid-off worker is worried
about well-pensioned and honorable
retirement
 Occupational health in this wider context
has an important place in the New Public
Health

14. The Burden of Occupational
Morbidity and Mortality
 The 10 most frequent work-related
diseases and injuries are:
1. Lung disease;
2. Musculoskeletal injuries;
3. Cancers;
4. Severe trauma;
5. Cardiovascular disorders;
6. Disorders of reproduction;
7. Neurotoxic disorders;
8. Noise-related hearing loss;
9. Dermatologic conditions;
10. Psychological strain and boredom.

15. Barriers to Accurate Diagnosis of
Occupational Diseases
 Patient
1. Inadequate training/knowledge of exposures in
workplace
2. Lack of workers access to material safety data
sheets
3. Fear of loss of job due to reporting of illness
4. Psychological denial that symptoms could be work
related
5. Long induction period (the time between initial
exposure to a cause of disease and the occurrence
of disease)
6. Long latency period (the time between the
occurrence of disease and its recognition, whether

16. Barriers to Accurate Diagnosis of
Occupational Diseases….
 Clinician
 Inadequate training/knowledge of exposures in
and diseases found in the workplace
 Inadequate time to conduct occupational
history
 Failure to nconsider occupational factors in
differential diagnosis
 Lack of awareness of the legal requirements
for reporting, notification
 Percieved hassle of reporting to governmental
or surveillance systems

17. Barriers to Accurate Diagnosis of
Occupational Diseases…..
 Societal
-lack of recognition of the scope and costs of
occupational disease in the population in general
-lack of funding of research into chronic diseases
that may be occupationally related
-Historically, the relative isolation of occupational
medicine from traditional medicine care
 Logistics
-loss of reports (eg., in copying, packaging, mail
system, misfiling, and misorting, errors in coding,
data entry, and analysis) between the clinician
and the surveillance officer

18. THANK YOU