Introduction
This topic introduces occupational diseases as a group: their definition and characteristics, how they are classified and listed, the main principles of diagnosis, treatment and prophylaxis, and their link to medical expertise. The detailed pathology of individual diseases such as pneumoconioses, lead or vibration disease is covered in later topics.
Definition and characteristics
An occupational disease is a disease caused by harmful factors of the working environment or the labour process, acting on a worker in the course of his or her work. The group is multi-profile: the same kind of exposure can affect the lungs, skin, nervous system, blood, hearing or musculoskeletal system. The list is dynamic, because new technologies and materials create new hazards while older ones disappear.
- The link to work is established from the exposure history, not from the diagnosis alone.
- Latency is often long (years to decades), so the work cause is easily missed without a detailed occupational history.
- Recognition has legal consequences: compensation, sick leave, pension rights and assessment of loss of working capacity.