Occupational illnesses chronic health effects

In addition to chloracne, acute or chronic health effects, or both, may occur. Acute effects are noticed soon after heavy exposure to TCDD, as after the explosions ( ). In such cases, workers usually become ill within 1 week. If workers are continually exposed to lower levels of TCDD, however, signs of illness may not occur for several months. Under such circumstances, the overriding sign is the chloracne. Although in Nitro, West Virginia exposure and occupational illness occurred as early as 1947, it was not until 1957 that TCDD was identified as the culprit (19). 

Humans can be exposed to POPs through diet, occupational exposures (for example, farmworkers may be exposed to POPs through pesticides), industrial accidents and the environment (including indoor exposure). Exposure to POPs, either acute or chronic, can be associated with a wide range of adverse health effects, including illness and death (L. Ritter et al., 1995). Laboratory animal studies and wildlife studies have associated POPs with endocrine disruption, reproductive and immune dysfunction, neurobehavioral disorders and cancer. More recently, some POPs have also been connected to reduced immunity in infants and children and a concomitant increase in infections. Other studies have linked POPS concentrations in humans with developmental abnormalities, neurobehavioral impairment and cancer and tumor induction or promotion.4... 

It is considered desirable to keep workplace exposure to pesticides as low as practical regardless of the current knowledge of their acute and chronic toxicity. All too often pesticides which were considered to be of negligible toxicity are later found to have a potential for causing adverse health effects following a sufficient period of exposure to an adequate dose. DBCP and nitrophen are good examples of this type of problem. We also gather and analyze detailed information on more than 2,000 illness reports per year from physicians who describe possible occupational exposures to specific pesticides. We also obtain or make detailed workplace measurements of the levels of pesticides to which workers may be exposed. 

Health hazards also present a problan in that some can cause acute effects, while others can lead to chronic disease at some time much later. This chapter cannot cover all the potential causes and risks of occupational illness, but it does review some of the most common health-related risks in the workplace. 

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