Priorities in Preventive Medicine

Abstract

Preventive efforts in the control of occupational diseases paid off mainly because of direct identification of the primary causative agents in the work environment, thus pointing at once to the control requirements. There is need to extend these efforts to search out other possible health risks in industry that are not now recognized, perhaps, because of more complex etiological relationships within which the possibilities for attack on the critical causative factors are obscured.

In contrast to the earlier dominance of the external agent in the agent-host-effect relationships, variations in the capacities and limitations of the workers to deal with hazardous environmental agents will undoubtedly dominate the new relationships and largely determine the prospects for bringing these health risks under control. Operation of such broadened preventive efforts are considered in relation to the Occupational Safety and Health Act.