OCCUPATIONAL MEDICINE
Occupational medicine is the branch of medicine that deals with safeguarding the health and safety of workers in the work environment.
Traditionally it deals with:
- evaluating the effects on health of chemical, physical and biological agents to which workers are exposed;
- the psychophysical impact that the work environment may have on a subject.
Today, the evolution of medicine is more and more addressed to implementing prevention and health promotion plans, through health education and correction of lifestyles in the work environment.
The L.D. 81/08 concerning Occupational Medicine and Work Safety, envisages as a common goal: “preserving and improving the physical and social wellbeing of workers of any kind and category, trying to prevent professional diseases and injuries in the work environment”.
For this purpose, strict collaboration between doctors, technicians, employersand workers, continuous commitment and a high level of professionality are required.
The role of the occupational doctor
Once, occupational doctors were only involved in evaluating workers physically, today, as said before, they are involved from the beginning in the preventionprocess within the work environment.
Together with the employer, they elaborate the Risk Evaluation Document, update it periodically giving suggestions and making improvements, inspect the work environment and take part in the annual meeting on work safety.
Besides risk assessment, occupational doctors are also responsible for health surveillance.
Basically, today an occupational doctor is considered a consultant who sides the worker, and is a valid support, too, from a psychological and social point of view.
For an individual’s good, this leads to a very personal relationship with the worker, to whom, for example, surveillance outcomes must always be illustrated and explained.
Professional procedures and elements of verification
In occupational medicine, independently from work contract typologies, all workers in a company must undergo a medical examination.
This happens if, during risk assessment, risks have been detected for which health surveillance is dutiful.
In general we can say that it is necessary to appoint an occupational doctor if one of the following risks has been detected:
- exposure to toxic or infecting substances
- risk of exposure to chemical, physical and biological agents
- risk of exposure to ionizing radiations
- manufacturing processes with a risk of exposure to lead or asbestos
- manual handling of loads
- use of devices with video-terminals
- psychosocial risk factors: work related stress
A consulting agency represents the chance for business companies to be sided in any type of activity by professionals, and of attaining and maintaining legislative compliance.
Thanks to a team of experts, BLUE MEDICAL CENTER is a point of reference in the sector of business consultancy, guaranteeing qualified operative support in all of Italy and providing all types of services in the sector of Occupational Medicine.