OCCUPATIONALLY RELATED DISORDERS

This article discusses the current status of occupational disease in the United States, with particular emphasis on the role of the primary care physician in the recognition, diagnosis, and prevention of occupationally induced illness. Occupational diseases are responsible each year in the United States for 50,000 to 70,000 deaths and for 350,000 new cases of illness. Much occupationally induced disease is not recognized as work-related and is attributed to other causes. A major thrust of this article is to encourage physicians to become more astute in the proper diagnosis of occupationally induced disease.