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Occupational disease
 
 
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An occupational disease is any chronic ailment that occurs as a result of work or occupational activity. An occupational disease is typically identified when it is shown that it is more prevalent in a given body of workers than in the general population, or in other worker populations. Occupational hazards that are of a traumatic nature (such as falls by roofers) are not considered to be occupational diseases.






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An occupational disease is any chronic ailment that occurs as a result of work or occupational activity. An occupational disease is typically identified when it is shown that it is more prevalent in a given body of workers than in the general population, or in other worker populations. Occupational hazards that are of a traumatic nature (such as falls by roofers) are not considered to be occupational diseases. Under the law of workers' compensation
Workers' compensation

Workers compensation is a form of insurance that provides compensation medical care for employees who are injured in the course of employment, in exchange for mandatory relinquishment of the employee's right to sue his or her employer for the tort of negligence....
 in many jurisdictions, there is a presumption that specific disease are caused by the worker being in the work environment and the burden is on the employer or insurer to show that the disease came about from another cause.

Some well-known occupational diseases include:

  • Asbestosis
    Asbestosis

    Asbestosis is a chronic Inflammation medical condition affecting the parenchymal Biological tissue of the lungs. It occurs after long-term, heavy exposure to asbestos, e.g....
     among asbestos
    Asbestos

    Asbestos is a naturally occurring silicate mineral with long, thin fibrous crystals. The word asbestos is derived from a Greek language adjective meaning inextinguishable....
     miners and those who work with friable asbestos insulation.
  • Black lung (Coalworker's pneumoconiosis
    Coalworker's pneumoconiosis

    Black lung disease, also known as coal workers' pneumoconiosis , is caused by long exposure to coal. It is a common affliction of coal miners and others who work with coal, similar to both silicosis from inhaling silica dust, and to the long-term effects of tobacco smoking....
    ) among coal miners
  • Byssinosis
    Byssinosis

    Byssinosis, also called "brown lung disease" or "Monday fever", is an occupational lung disease caused by exposure to cotton dust in inadequately ventilated working environments....
     among workers in parts of the cotton textile industry
  • Carpal tunnel syndrome
    Carpal tunnel syndrome

    Carpal tunnel syndrome , or median neuropathy at the wrist, is a medical condition in which the median nerve is compressed at the wrist, leading to paresthesias, numbness and muscle weakness in the hand....
     among persons who work in the poultry
    Poultry

    Poultry is the category of domesticated birds which some people keep for the purpose of collecting their egg , or kill for their meat and/or feathers....
     industry and who do data entry.
  • Lead poisoning
    Lead poisoning

    Lead poisoning is a medical condition caused by increased levels of the metal lead in the blood. Lead may cause irreversible neurological damage as well as renal disease, cardiovascular effects, and human reproduction toxicity....
     affecting workers in many industries that processed or employed lead or lead compounds. Known under various names from ancient times, these diseases were first documented as specifically due to lead by Samuel Stockhausen
    Samuel Stockhausen

    Samuel Stockhausen was a German physician in the mining town of Goslar. He studied the ancient miner's disease, called H?ttenkatze, among workers in the nearby Mines of Rammelsberg in the Harz mountains....
     in 1656.
  • Phossy jaw
    Phossy jaw

    Phossy jaw, formally phosphorus necrosis of the jaw is a deadly occupational hazard for those who work with white phosphorus without proper safeguards....
     among the London matchgirls
    London matchgirls strike of 1888

    The London match-girls strike of 1888 was a Industrial action of the women and teenage girls working at the Bryant and May Factory, Bow in Bow, London, London....
  • Radiation sickness
    Radiation Sickness

    Radiation Sickness is a VHS by the thrash metal band Nuclear Assault. The video is a recording of a concert at the Hammersmith Odeon, London in 1988....
     among persons who work in the nuclear industry.
  • Radium jaw
    Radium jaw

    Radium jaw is an occupational disease brought on by the ingestion and subsequent absorption of radium into the bones of Radium dial painters. The symptoms are Osteonecrosis of the jaw of the mandible and the maxilla as well as constant bleeding of the gums and after some time, severe distortion due to bone tumours and porosity of the lower...
     among the Radium Girls
    Radium Girls

    The Radium Girls were women subjected to radiation exposure at the United States Radium Corporation factory, in Orange, New Jersey around 1917....
  • Squamous cell carcinoma
    Squamous cell carcinoma

    In medicine, squamous cell carcinoma is a form of cancer of the carcinoma type that may occur in many different organs, including the skin, lips, mouth, esophagus, urinary bladder, prostate, lungs, vagina, and cervix....
     of the skin of the scrotum among chimney sweeps. The link was discovered by Percivall Pott
    Percivall Pott

    Percivall Pott London, England) was an English surgery, one of the founders of orthopedy, and the first scientist to demonstrate that a cancer may be caused by an environmental carcinogen....
     in 1775.