How Dampness, Abnormal Air pressures and Abnormal Temperatures affect Industrial owrkers health?

DAMPNESS

Tankmen, vatmen, coal miners, and washers are among those who have to work exposed to almost constant dampness. As a result, they may suffer from coughs, respiratory troubles, rheumatic dis- eases, and skin changes. Such workers should be as completely protected as possible by waterproof clothing, rubber boots and gloves. In addition, efforts should be made to control dampness by drain channels through which excess water can be carried away.

ABNORMAL AIR PRESSURES

 Tunnel workers and divers do their jobs under unusually heavy air pressures. In going underground, tunnel workers travel in a chamber which descends slowly so there is a gradual increase in air pressure. If the descent is fast, the change in pressure is distressing. The first sensation is felt in the eardrums and can be relieved by swallowing. Extremely rapid decrease in pressure can produce the "bends" in which blood supply from different parts of the body is blocked off by small air bubbles. Decompression sickness is dangerous and can be fatal.

It may develop several hours after a diver has returned too rapidly to the surface. Treatment usually requires recompression and then gradual decompression. Rising rapidly to a high altitude, which means entering a lower air pressure situation, can be just as harmful. Ascent as well as descent should be gradual. Pilots who ascend too rapidly or take sudden dives may become dizzy, and the change in pressure may be violent enough to burst their eardrums. Commercial airliners are pressurized to avoid the effects of high altitudes.

ABNORMAL TEMPERATURES

Steelworkers, welders, furnace men, blacksmiths, and others may be exposed to very high temperatures which may lead to heatstroke, heat exhaustion, and cramps. Very low temperatures may cause frostbite, gangrene, or death. Insulation or air conditioning and protective clothing can help protect against temperature extremes and their effects. Additional salt, which can be taken in the form of tablets, is needed to make up for large amounts lost in perspiration. Relief periods-providing opportunity to return to normal temperature- are extremely important. Workers should be on the alert for symptoms and should ask for relief the moment any symptoms appear. They should also report any colds or other disturbances to the company doctor or their own physician. 

Smoking Cancer and Smoking kills

SMOKING AND CANCER

Smoking today stands indicted as a significant factor in many types of cancer, most notably cancer of the lung. Most researchers believe that there are multiple causes, rather than some single cause, for cancer. 

Many believe that certain human cancers will be proved to be due to viruses which already are known to produce some cancers in animals. No matter what the cause may be, the basic cancer process involves a change in DNA or RNA, chemicals that are part of the reproductive mechanism of cells.

As a result of the change, the cells no longer reproduce in orderly fashion but divide rapidly and, upon dividing, each cell may produce three or more new cells instead of the normal two. Whether a virus is the cause or chemical disturbances are involved, the effect is upon the cell reproductive system. 

And many contributory factors may open the way for cancer by disturbing the balance between viruses and cells or by upsetting chemical processes in cells. Thus, sun- light, soot, and other irritating substances are known to be factors in provoking skin cancer; radiation is known to be involved in leukemia; and cigarette smoke in lung cancer.

Lung cancer today is the leading cause of death from malignancy in the United States. Before World War I, 371 deaths in the United States were attributed to lung cancer. By 1940, there were 7,121; by 1950, 18,313; by 1960, 36,420; and recently the rate has reached 55,300 a year. The increase has been epidemic in its proportions. The association between smoking and lung cancer has been established by many studies. 

One of the largest involved a follow-up of more than one million men and women for a four year period. The study determined that the risk of dying from lung cancer for men aged 35 to 84 who smoke less than a pack a day is 6 times as great, and' for men smoking

Smoking more packs 16 times as great, as for nonsmokers. 

Administering Drugs with care - Preventive adverse and side effects

First read the label when you take the drug container from the medicine cabinet; read it again when you take the drug itself; and finally, read the label a third time when you put the container away. That last reading is an extra check to make certain you read the label properly the first two times. If you did happen to make a mistake, you have a chance to do something about it at once.

  

TRICKS FOR PROPER DOSAGE made by machines that produce attractive roundedness

 For the most part, are more attractive-looking and less expensive than those that were made individually by a druggist to a special prescription of a physician. The trouble with machine-made articles of medicine, as with mass- produced clothes, is that tailoring to each individual's needs cannot be built in. Thus, it's known that the amount of medicine required varies almost directly with the weight of a person.

Most machine-made capsules and pills are made for a standard person of about 150 pounds so they are apt to contain just a bit too much for most women, a bit too little for most men. Doctors have learned how to adjust dosages even with the limitations of machine-made medicines. For example, consider pills of phenobarbital often prescribed for nervousness, tension, headaches with a psychogenic component. Phenobarbital is commonly available in 1/8, 1/4, and 1/2 grain sizes. Suppose phenobarbital in 1/4 grain dosage is prescribed for a woman and it helps her tension but makes her just a bit too forgetful and drowsy to do her work properly.

The doctor tries 1/8 grain, but that doesn't help her tension enough. The solution lies in going back to the 1/4 grain dosage and proper use of a fingernail file. The patient is instructed to consider a tablet as a circle, and to gently file away one fourth of the circle, to get a tablet that is just halfway between 1/8 and 1/4 grain sizes. 

Usually, the patient "plays around" a bit and finds just the right tailor made size for her needs. When it comes to capsules-especially of sleeping medicines such as Nembutal, Seconal, and Amy talit's a help to learn how to take apart a capsule gently and pour out a portion to adjust the dosage to individual needs, then rejoin the capsule.

 Many people find a standard 1-1/2 grain capsule ineffective; on the other hand, when they take two capsules, they may experience hangovers. One full capsule and half of another may be the right dosage. 

How taking body temperature helps to prevent certain diseases?

FEVER

Fever most commonly signals infection or inflammation somewhere in the body. The temperature is likely to be highest during a bacterial or severe viral infection. With a mild infection such as a cold, temperature elevation may be slight and fleeting. When fever is high, there is usually no hesitancy about calling the physician. But there may be other occasions when the physician should be consulted.

First

A few facts about taking temperature

Aspirin and aspirin-containing medications bring down elevated temperature and tend to keep it down for as long as four hours. So for accurate determinations, temperature should be taken before use of such medications or four or five hours afterward. Remember, too, that if temperature is taken immediately after smoking, it may be higher than normal; and conversely, if taken by mouth just after a cold drink, it may be lower than normal. Before taking temperature, rinse the thermometer in cool water and shake it until the mercury falls below the 95-degree mark. If you use an oralthermometer, hold it under the tongue, with mouth shut, for at least three minutes.

A rectal thermometer, after lubrication, should be inserted up to the 98.6-degree line while the patient lies on his side. It should remain in place for three to five minutes. For the average person, mouth temperature normally is 98.6 degrees, and rectal tends to be about one degree higher. When fever is mild-under 100 degrees orally or 101 rectally-and the only other symptom is nasal congestion, a slight cough, or a scratchy throat, there is no urgency about calling the physician. But take the temperature every three or four hours and note the severity of symptoms. If symptoms become worse or if the temperature moves up to 101 orally or 102 rectally, then notify your physician. Always when fever is present it is important to note the accompanying.

How AUTOMATED MULTI-PHASE SCREENING helps to check diseases in health care

One of the relatively recent developments that is almost certain to bring striking changes in the practice of medicine, adding further to the emphasis on and practicality of preventive medicine, is automated multi- phase screening. The idea is to link electronic detection devices, large numbers of chemical tests, and computer science together to screen or check, at low cost, large numbers of apparently healthy people, looking for the most subtle signs of early disease and even of pre-disease states, doing far more routine testing than physicians have time for, providing them with the results of the tests, and giving them more opportunity to counsel patients and practice preventive medicine.

In a periodic checkup that may run two to three hours, a patient moves from one station to another for checks of hearing, visual acuity, respiration rate, lung capacity. An electrocardiogram is made; a measurement of pressure within the eye is quickly made for detection of glaucoma, a major cause of blindness. A chest x-ray is taken and, in the case of women, a three-dimensional breast photograph (mammography). Pulse and blood pressuremeasurements are included. The patient answers a self-administered questionnaire on health history. And blood and urine samples are taken and automatically checked for indications of infection, gout, diabetes, and other diseases and also for a variety of biochemical values that may give some indications of pre disease changes. A computer summarizes the findings and produces a printed record for the patient's personal physician to evaluate. Automated multiphase screening is moving rapidly out of the experimental phase. Much of the pioneering work in its development was done by physicians at the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan in northern California with some financial assistance from the U.S.Public Health Service

The Public Health Service has awarded funds to set up pilot programs in Milwaukee, New Orleans, Brooklyn, and Providence-some affiliated with health centers in poverty areas, others with universities, and still others with city health departments. Already, some large industries are planning automated multiphase screening facilities as part of their occupational health programs. And there are plans for forming medically directed private companies which would provide automated screening service for patients referred by physicians.

Automated screening facilities may not be available in your community yet. Ask your doctor about them. Tell him you are interested. If the facilities are not available, you will be doing a public service by encouraging your doctor to push for their establishment in the near future.

YOUR ROLE

You AS the patient in preventive medicine have a role to play that goes far beyond cooperating in regular checkups. You can build and maintain your health, taking advantage of the latest knowledge in such areas as nutrition, weight control, physical activity, rest and relaxation (to be covered in later sections of this posts). You can be alert, too, between checkups for any danger signals.

DISEASE SCENARIOS in body care, and how to cure or prevent it? 1000 posts following

Bacterial diseases and preventive medical care

In Preventive medical care new discoveries and inventions make great changes in the human life.
Another important development has been the discovery that death is really a slow intruder, that diseases do not suddenly spring up full-blown but often have long scenarios. In the Korean War, autopsies of young American soldiers revealed that in 54 percent of these youths, many of whom had only very recently attained manhood, coronary heart disease was already starting. We see- of the disease germinate in the early years and the ultimate heart attack is the end result of a long process in time, then here is a problem that can be combatted, for there is time to combat it. And there is evidence of what factors are involved, there are mere to fight; to retard, and perhaps even to prevent it from getting started Some of the most impressive preventive work recently has been the result of advances in the understanding of body chemistry-and of chemical abnormalities that may be inborn. It has now become possible to detect early in life, even almost immediately after birth, such inborn errors as phenylketonuria and galactosemia.

Detection of diseases

They involve inability to properly handle certain specific food elements, and simply by avoiding such elements it has become possible to prevent development of mental retardation, growth failure, and other serious problems. Understanding of the chemistry of disease is expanding rapidly, and there is growing confidence that the principles of early detection and treatment of diseases due to inborn chemical errors can be extended to many common chronic diseases. That 'can make it possible for the doctor in his practice to have to deal less-with severe complications triggered while a disease smoulders under the surface before calling attention to itself with obvious symptoms, and he can be concerned instead with The early detection of the still symptom-free but predisposed patient and correction of the basic problem before complications have a chance to Develop..

Already, for example, promising work is being done in detecting people with prediabetes-those who have no symptoms of diabetes but do have changes in body chemistry that may forecast eventual onset of overt diabetes. Early results of treating such patients with antidiabetic agents are regarded by some investigators as promising, suggesting it may be possible to prevent the development of diabetes and such complications as visual disturbances, circulatory disturbances, and increased risk of coronary heart disease. As we have noted earlier, kidney machines can be lifesavers for pa- tients with kidney failure-but it would be far 'better to prevent the failure. And there is growing hope now that in many cases failure may be prevented by attention to asymptomatic bacteria.

Bacteria detection

Asymptomatic bacteria simply means the presence of sizable numbers' of bacteria in the urine without causing symptoms. The condition may occur at any age and in either sex but is especially frequent in females, affecting 1.2 percent of schoolgirls and 6 percent of pregnant women. There is ovi- dence that if left untreated bacteria may eventually cause the kidney disease pyelonephritis, which in turn may result in kidney failure. Bacteria can be treated effectively once detected, and newer tests now make its detection simpler and more practical. Today, as the next chapter will show, many testing procedures are available to make it possible for the physician increasingly to anticipate and prevent disca rather than wait for it to appear.