Occupational physician

The occupational physician for a project should be identified and, for HAZWOPER jobs, is required to be board certified in occupational medicine [4]. For any job that involves exposure to hazardous substances, it is important that you locate and use an occupational physician (sometimes referred to in the field as an Oc Doc) who is knowledgeable about the hazards that your workers are exposed to. Sometimes in medicine, as in many other fields, working with a physician who specializes in the hazard that your company deals with can be a lifesaver. 

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A third historical strand that has helped to create modern toxicology consists of the labors of occupational physicians. Some of the earliest treatises on toxicology were written by physicians who had observed or collected information on the hazards of various jobs. The man some have called the father of the field of occupational medicine was Bernardino Ramazzini, an Italian physician whose text De Moribus Artificum Diatriba (1700) contributed enormously to our understanding of how occupational exposure to metals such as lead and mercury could be harmful to workers. Ramazzini also recognized that it was important to consider the possibility that some poisons could slowly build up in the body and that their adverse effects do not make themselves apparent for a long time after exposure begins. 

Occupational physicians, Pott among them, contributed greatly to the development of the modern science of epidemiology - the systematic study of how diseases are distributed in human populations and of the factors that cause or contribute to them. Epidemiology is an important modern science, and its application, as we shall see, can provide the most significant data obtainable about the toxic effects of chemicals. 

It is challenging to extrapolate general surveillance data, particularly with limited health-effects data, to individual risk estimates without the genetic, external-exposure, lifestyle, and other data that a clinician could use to adjust population risk estimates for individual cases. As a result, previous comments about communication difficulties with respect to health implications apply far more to surveillance studies than they do to the interaction of a personal or occupational physician with an individual patient or worker on whom the physician also has extensive nonbiomarker information. For example, clinicians might in rare cases determine that BEIs are appropriate comparison values for a specific patient s biomarker concentrations. 

Occupational illnesses and injuries should be diagnosed and treated promptly. The occupational physician, who is familiar with workplace hazards, is uniquely qualified to recognize work-related conditions and should be able to arrange for prompt treatment and rehabilitation. 

Occupational physicians recognize the importance of trying to rehabilitate employees who have problems with drug and alcohol abuse. This must be done in a confidential manner. Some types of work, such as transportation or military activities, have mandatory drug screening and rehabilitation programs. 

Indeed, in the years following the Act there were so few professionally qualified occupational physicians that the state was forced to accept qualifications in other branches of medicine such as drorasic and cardiac medicine as dieir equivalent in order that enployers who were obl ed to do so could employ a physician to advise on occupational health. 

This situation should have in oved sonsewfaat durii 2002 since it was d ded than no enterprise with more than 50 enq>loyees shall be without a Safety Engineer or an Occupational Physician and a written risk assessment. 

Occupational Physicians, with the exception of the few that see have se a market opportunity and set up EXYPPs, scarcely bother to take initiatives on workplace chemical exposures. 

A great number of animal studies showed that the topical application of SAS did not lead to irritations. Also, eye contact did not cause irritation. Occupational physicians... 

Set criteria for employee participation in medical surveillance Initiate medical surveillance/counseling as required Provide staff support for occupational physicians Maintain all medical records... 

Any physician involved in a health assurance program will have had the usual training and exposure to a variety of medical experiences. It also is highly desirable for the individual to have specific training in industrial medicine. Since the actual conditions of employee exposure to hazardous materials will differ with each organization, the physician should be sufficiently famihar with the types of ejqrosures represented by the job descriptions of the employees to be able to apply his own expertise and experience to the potential ejqrosures. The more complex and diversified the research programs in an organization, the more difficult this task will be, and unfortunately, there are relatively few physicians trained as occupational physicians. It probably would be desirable for the physician to set aside some time to visit the various research areas, and visit with both the supervisors and individual employees. 

GMA-12, Guide to Ionizing Radiation E qiosiu es for die Occupational Physician, Atomic Energy Control... 

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