Brief history of occupational health in Italy

Abstract

Italy is a relatively young nation, no more than 160 years old. From the 1860s and for many decades the country remained mainly rural with little industrial activity. Nevertheless, the latter constituted the seeds for the Italian “economic miracle” of the 1960s–1970s, and, today, Italy is one of the world's largest advanced economies. Occupational health has followed a similar pace as the country's industrial development, cultural growth, and historical events. Over the time, the nature of the most common occupational health problems changed from poverty-related diseases (infectious diseases, acute and chronic poisonings, severe pneumoconiosis, etc.) to occupational cancer and other noncommunicable diseases. Ergonomic and psychosocial disorders have a more recent origin, and it should be noted that today there has also been a non-negligible resurgence of illnesses related to poor conditions among small groups of workers.

Keywords:

• Epidemiology
• history
• Italy
• occupational diseases
• occupational health
• occupational medicine
• toxicology
• workers; occupational cancer
• noncommunicable diseases