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The Modern Approach to Occupational Health
Author(s) -
Kelman G.R.
Publication year - 1984
Publication title -
asia pacific journal of human resources
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.825
H-Index - 33
eISSN - 1744-7941
pISSN - 1038-4111
DOI - 10.1177/103841118402200106
Subject(s) - profitability index , work (physics) , process (computing) , politics , occupational disease , subject (documents) , state (computer science) , business , occupational safety and health , balance (ability) , operations management , economics , medicine , computer science , political science , environmental health , law , finance , engineering , mechanical engineering , algorithm , library science , operating system , physical medicine and rehabilitation
To introduce this subject I will state my fundamental philosophical view on occupational health. It is this: That there is no industrial activity which does not have its accompanying cost in terms of increased morbidity and mortality among the work force. The job of the occupational physician is to minimise this cost while at the same time maintaining the profitability of whatever industry with which he is associated. As an academic occupational physician my job is to try and define as closely as possible the relationship between a given industrial process and the cost of that process in terms of human disease; but once defined, the problem of deciding what is an acceptable balance between increased morbidity and mortality on the one hand and the profitability of industry on the other, is essentially a political or economic decision which does not directly concern the occupational physician.