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Article: Medicine, Occupational
- Article from:
- Dictionary of American History
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MEDICINE, OCCUPATIONAL
MEDICINE, OCCUPATIONAL,
attempts to maintain workers' health, prevent disease, and treat the results of occupational disease or accident. The field of occupational medicine in its modern form developed largely through the efforts of women reformers during the Progressive Era, although preliminary efforts to ameliorate occupational ill-health date back to the nineteenth century. Adverse working conditions can cause acute and chronic illnesses and disabling accidents. Low wages, long hours of work, emotional stress, and inferior status or social role may also adversely affect the general health of the worker. Health counseling and health maintenance have evolved as ...