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How occupational diseases are discovered and combated

2023-02-24T08:44:33.422Z


Occupational ailments have existed since work existed. But it was not until the eighteenth century when the first was detected. The research ended up being a social and health revolution.


When we think of a chimney sweep in Victorian London, we all think of the cute image of Bert, Mary Poppins' friend, played by Dick Van Dyke, and the famous chimney dance from the film.

The reality of being a chimney sweep was unglamorous and more like the darker passages of Dickens's work than a Disney movie.

The architecture of that time did not meet the safety standards of today and the chimneys could be vertical, bent or even have horizontal sections and be very, very narrow, which is why the work of chimney sweep and chimney sweep was entrusted to children between the ages of 4 and 10 years from the poorest families.

As recounted by Charles Kingsley in his 1863 book

The Children of the Water

: "They could not read or write" or "in the north country there were many chimneys to clean, much money for Tom to earn and his master to spend."

The work of a chimney sweep was child slavery.

The children, dressed in rags or naked, had to roll in the soot to remove the dirt from the most remote corners.

The smallest and skinniest were the most in demand and their work was carried out without any type of hygienic or sanitary measure, or medical supervision.

The London doctor Percivall Pott was the first to pay attention to these children.

In 1775 he wrote the medical work

Surgical Observations relative to cataracts, polyps of the nose, cancer of the scrotum, and the different types of rupture and modifications of the foot and toes,

in which, when talking about children who are chimney sweeps, one can read: "Their fate is particularly cruel, from their earliest childhood they are mistreated and subjected to hunger and cold, to later be thrown into narrow, still-warm chimneys where they suffer scratches, burns or suffocation, and by the time they reach puberty almost all suffer from a painful and fatal disease.

According to many historians, this could be the first modern description of an occupational disease, that is, of a disease caused by doing a certain job.

Pott realized that working as a chimney sweep meant in most cases suffering from a type of cancer in the scrotum.

Years later this disease was classified as a squamous cell carcinoma,

that at that time it was a fatal disease that caused the death of many of them upon reaching puberty.

Pott continued his research and developed a surgical process to eliminate this condition, though only if it was diagnosed in its early stages.

Since this seminal investigation, it has been seen how certain professions are associated with specific diseases.

Thanks to its systematic study, it has been possible to improve working conditions and the health of the population.

Thus we know that miners are prone to silicosis, that many offices had problems with ergonomics that caused injuries, and that many masons or butane workers ended up with chronic back injuries.

The first study that showed that tobacco was carcinogenic was one carried out in the fifties comparing smoking doctors with non-smoking doctors.

Thus it was possible to see that cancer levels were skyrocketing among smokers.

Currently there is a profession, that of health coder, who is in charge of coding and entering all medical data into databases.

JM Mulet is Professor of Biotechnology.


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Source: elparis

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