Ramazzini, Bernardino

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. 

Because adverse skin responses are so easily recognizable, this organ was among the earliest subjected to scrutiny, mostly by physicians interested in occupational diseases. Bernardino Ramazzini s tract of 1700, De Moribis Artificum Diatriba, contained many examples of skin diseases associated with occupational exposures, and, as will be seen in the next chapter, the seminal work of Percival Pott on occupationally induced cancers, published in 1775, revealed the role of soot in the production of cancers on the skin of the scrotum in London chimney sweeps. 

The answer is very likely, and pigments are a possible explanation of the way artists were prone to abnormal moodiness and poor health. As we have seen, many pigments were compounds of the toxic elements, mercury, lead, and arsenic. As long ago as 1713, the physician Bernardino Ramazzini speculated that both Correggio and Raphael had been victims of lead poisoning. 

Cancer, in fact, has afflicted humans around the world and throughout recorded history. The origin of the word cancer is credited to the Greek physician Hippocrates (460-370 Bc), considered the father of medicine. Hippocrates used the terms car-cinos and carcinoma to describe non-ulcer-forming and ulcer-forming tumors. Bernardino Ramazzini, an Italian doctor, reported in 1713 the high incidence of breast cancer in nuns. Percival Pott of Saint Bartholomew s Hospital in London described in 1775 an occupational cancer in chimney sweeps, cancer of the scrotum, caused by soot collection under the scrotum of workers. 

As early as 1700, Bernardino Ramazzini, one of the founders of occupational medicine, had associated certain physical activities with musculoskeletal disorders (MSD). He postulated that certain violent and irregular motions and unnatural postures of the body impair the internal structure [Snook et al., 1988]. Presently, much effort is directed toward abetter understanding of work-related musculoskeletal disorders involving the back, cervical spine, and upper extremities. The World Health Organization (WHO) has defined occupational diseases as those work-related diseases where the relationship to specific causative factors at work has been fully established [WHO, 1985]. Other work-related diseases may have a weaker or unclear association to working conditions. They maybe aggravated, accelerated, or exacerbated by workplace factors and lead to impairment of workers performance. Hence obtaining the occupational history... 

Bernardino Ramazzini (1633-1714), an Italian physician, is best known as the Father of Occupational Medicine. His most famous work, De Morhis Artificum ( Diseases of Workers ), urged all physicians to ask their patients, Of what trade are you This simple question became a powerful tool to help establish the previously often overlooked relationship between occupation and illness. 

Bernardino Ramazzini s De morbis artifi-cum diatriba (1700) was the first comprehensive monograph on industrial medicine. Luigi Devoto... 

The types of work and settings have changed over the centuries. Humans have consistently been aware of the need for a good fit between work tools and the human body. While he was a medical student at Parma University in Italy, Bernardino Ramazzini recognized that workers suffered certain diseases. In 1682, he focused on worker health concerns. His scholarly collection of observations, De Mortis Arti-ficum Diatriba Diseases of Workers), published in 1700, detailed conditions associated with specific work environments and fectors such as prolonged body postures and repetitive motion. His work earned him the title Father of Occupational Medicine. ... 

In 1700 a book on trade diseases was published by an Italian physician by the name of Bernardino Ramazzini. He based the book on personal observations in the workshops of Modena where he was professor of medicine and on the writings of earlier doctors. Ramazzini was the first person to advise that physicians should ask specifically about the patient s occupation when diagnosing illness. 

Some early work on ergonomics was done by a Polish researcher, Jastizebowski, in the nineteenth century. But even prior to this some of the principles were recognized by Bernardino Ramazzini when he wrote his book On the Diseases of Occupations in 1700. The term ergonomics was coined by Jastizebowski in 1857. It was reintroduced in the UK in 1950, but the study of the person within the system in the United States, known as hirman factors, which has a variation of emphasis, goes back well beyond that. 

Bernardino Ramazzini, Italian Physician - "Father of Occupational Medicine", 1633-1714 ... 

Concern about the diagnosis of biological risks to which health professionals are subject is a matter of the utmost importance at present. However, this importance dates back to the year 1700, when Bernardino Ramazzini, father of occupational medicine, made references to the biological risks existent for certain professions (Mastroeni, 2006). 

Bernardino Ramazzini reported symptoms from the respiratory tract in flax and hemp carders as well as in sifters and measurers of grain (Ramazzini 1700). This reference is often dted incorrectly in terms of date since the second edition of 1713 was translated into English in 1940. In this second edition, Ramazzini added some chapters, but the chapters on organic-dust-induced symptoms were included already in the first edition of De morbis artificum published in 1700. 

Although it has been known for centuries that bioaerosols and organic dust can cause severe hazards for the respiratory tract, it stills remains a serious problem. Let us end by citing Bernardino Ramazzini again - If you find that work seriously affects your health, it is very wise to change occupation. Money is worthless, if you loose the most valuable of all, your health. ... 

---