The family physician and industrial hygiene
J. R. Wheat, J. T. McKnight and W. H. Weems
Department of Behavioral and Community Medicine, University of Alabama School of Medicine, Tuscaloosa.
Family physicians are increasingly being called on to become involved in
the health care of workers in local industries. Many family physicians are
the sole providers of occupational health care in their communities, yet
their formal training is usually deficient in some of the more specialized
aspects of occupational medicine. Treating work-related injuries and
exposures to hazardous substances may require analyses of work sites that
many family physicians have neither the time nor the expertise to perform
adequately. Industrial hygienists are the consultants who are qualified to
assess potential occupational hazards and are trained to perform a
comprehensive analysis of the work environment as it relates to worker
health. This analysis may include the measurement of potentially hazardous
substances, such as ambient air concentrations of particulate matter and
toxic gases, and recommendations for prevention of exposures. Two cases are
presented to illustrate how valuable a consultation with an industrial
hygienist can be to the family physician.
