Pick a historical occupational hazard or event
Pick a historical occupational hazard or event
In public health, medicine, or any health science/allied health field that you may plan to go into, it is important to understand the history of the field. Understanding the mistakes made in the past will allow our society and the fields that we practice in to grow beyond the mistakes that were made.
This week, the discussion post will be to pick a historical occupational hazard/event that resulted in many workers becoming ill or injured, or resulted in fatalities. A few interesting examples are provided in the readings for this week, but you do not have to limit yourself to these.
Your discussion post must discuss the time period that the problem was prevalent, who was most affected, what was the health effects noted, who (or what organization) identified the problem (if applicable), and discuss what the current regulations are that prevent this from happening.
The requirements for this post will be slightly different from usual; I want the historical event you discuss to be researched thoroughly. As such, the word count for this discussion post will be more than usual, but since you all are writing a discussion post that is longer than usual only 1 peer response will be required.
Occupational Hazards: An Overview
Fishing, hunting, logging, aviation, roofing, construction, and waste management industries have higher-than-average on-the-job death rates. Transportation incidents accounted for the largest share of deaths, at more than 2,100, followed by falls, slips, and trips; exposure to harmful substances and environments; unintentional overdoses due to nonmedical use of drugs or alcohol; and fires and explosions.
Fortunately, in order to keep those risks and hazards to a minimum, there are federal and state organizations to monitor and review the work environment to ensure every employee’s safety.
Types of Occupational Hazards
An “occupational hazard” is any workplace condition that causes a risk to employee health. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the government organization in charge of keeping workers safe, has defined six main categories of occupational hazards:
- Safety. This category includes any condition, substance, or object that can injure a worker, like working from heights, spills on floors, machinery with moving parts, confined spaces, steep stairs, or exposed electrical wiring.
- Chemical. There are many kinds of hazardous chemicals and toxins in different workplaces, including environmental smoke, cleaning products, acids, pesticides, carbon monoxide, and flammable liquids.
- Biological. In some settings, such as farms, zoos, hospitals or medical offices, or veterinary clinics, workers can be exposed to biological health hazards like blood, fungi, mold, viruses, animal droppings, and insect bites.
- Physical. These are hazards in the environment that can harm your body without you actually touching it, like radiation, prolonged exposure to sunlight, extreme high or low temperatures, and loud noise.
- Ergonomic. These hazards put strain on your body over a period of time. You may just feel sore or cramped in the short term, but repeatedly sitting or standing in awkward positions or completing the same movements over and over, across a long period of time, can lead to long-term injury and illness.
- Work organization hazards. Workplace violence, discrimination, lack of respect, sexual harassment, and other conditions are hazardous to mental, emotional, and physical health.
Attachments
