1955: The Entre` of Medicine and Public Health into the Field of Agricultural Occupational Safety and Health

ABSTRACT

The University of Iowa Institute of Agricultural Medicine (IAM) played a significant role in the development of the field of agricultural medicine. This article is an excerpt from the electronic book The Institute of Agricultural Medicine: an Iowa Idea – Worldwide Impact, 2021 (https://pressbooks.uiowa.edu/agriculturalmedicinehistory/) which provides a detailed history of this story.

Olaus Magnus (a clergyman in the Christian Church) in Sweden in 1555, and Bernardon Ramazzini (a physician) in Italy in 1713 wrote of health conditions in farmers. However, there is no evidence found (in the Western Hemisphere) before 1955, where a specific institute was present for the preventive health and medicine for farmers, their families, and their workers. There was an absence of research and outreach in the medical and public health fields in agricultural medicine. The history of the Institute of Agricultural Medicine (IAM) provides a substantive grounding for the field as it stands today. Further, the institute serves as something of a precursor of the One Health Initiative. Here, we trace the history of the institute and highlight its contributions to today’s field of agricultural medicine.

KEYWORDS:

• SDG4 quality education
• history
• agricultural medicine
• public health

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Notes

1. The Mercosur (also know as the Southern Common Market) is a free trade block of countries in S. America that include Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay).

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Funding

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