Occupational diseases

Occupational diseases are illnesses caused or worsened by workplace exposures, hazards, or conditions. They range from acute poisonings to chronic cancers and respiratory disorders.

Occupational exposure: Contact with physical, chemical, biological, or ergonomic hazards during work. Exposure dose and duration help determine whether workplace contact causes disease.
Occupational hygiene: The discipline of anticipating, recognizing, evaluating, and controlling workplace health hazards. It identifies and reduces exposures before they cause occupational disease.
Work-relatedness: The extent to which work contributes to the cause or worsening of a health condition. A disease may be work-related even when workplace exposure is not its sole cause.
Asbestosis: A chronic lung disease caused by inhaling asbestos fibers, marked by progressive scarring of lung tissue. It exemplifies irreversible lung damage from long-term occupational fiber exposure.
Occupational cancer: Cancer caused or contributed to by exposures encountered at work. Long-term workplace exposures account for a preventable share of cancer cases.
Dose–response relationship: The association between the amount of exposure to a factor and the resulting biological effect. Many occupational diseases become more likely or severe as exposure increases.
Hierarchy of hazard controls: A ranking of hazard-control methods from elimination and substitution to personal protective equipment. Its ranking prioritizes workplace changes that prevent disease at its source.
Occupational injury: Physical or psychological harm resulting from a work-related event or exposure, often with sudden onset. Injuries are often distinguished from diseases by their more immediate onset.
Silicosis: A fibrotic lung disease caused by inhaling respirable crystalline silica dust. Mining and stone work can produce the dust exposure that causes it.
Pneumoconiosis: A group of lung diseases caused by inhaling mineral dusts, including coal dust and silica. Dust-related lung disease has driven workplace protections and compensation programs.

Linked from 8 pages