Training and education in occupational health : report of a WHO study group, meeting held in Geneva from 24 to 28 November 1986/ World Health Organization

Considers how changes in education and training can be used to cope with new patterns of work-related diseases. Emphasis is placed on the need to adapt practices in occupational health to conditions created by the dynamic development of industrialization throughout the world. The report opens with a discussion of factors that have altered the types of diseases encountered in workers and important to occupational health. These range from the new hazards introduced by industrialization in developing countries to the problem of identifying multicausal diseases, particularly when exposure to environmental pollution augments the effects of exposures at the workplace. The most extensive sections of the report examine training objectives for medical students, occupational health nurses, occupational hygienists, primary health care workers and researchers and teachers in occupational health. The report concludes with examples of the curriculum content of courses for training different categories of occupational health personnel.