Occupational Medicine & Health Affairs
Open Access

Abstract

Occupational Medicine is getting more and more involved in the field of prevention, due to the workers continuously growing awareness of their rights in terms of health, and the political choice of investing more economic resources in the preventive field. The consequent fall out is an increased attention to the labor organization and to psycho-social factors that considerably affect the workers? health. Even though modern occupational medicine still deals with the clinical features of the observed diseases, its interest is now moving toward the pathogenesis of occupational diseases and, hopefully, the prevention of the risk factors tightly related to work sites. Health surveillance could be the source of information about history, life-styles, socio-economic status, anthropometrics and laboratories, wealth of information that is analyzed in epidemiological studies. An example of the model proposed is represented by the 40-year prospective Olivetti Heart study, which enrolled about one thousand employees of the Olivetti factories in the area of Pozzuoli and Marcianise (little towns close to Napoli). Data from this study shed light on the relationship between chronic-degenerative diseases and the risk determined by several individual (genetics) and psychosocial (occupationrelated) factors. A 40-year follow up of the Olivetti study (data will be shown) represents a good example of the results that may be achieved by combining a wide-ranging health surveillance with productive results. The combination of these two aspects of occupational medicine clearly shows how the knowledge coming from these activities may benefit both the workers and the general population.

Biography

Eduardo Farinaro graduated in Medicine at University of Naples on December 1969. He is post graduated at Department of Community Health and Preventive Medicine Northwestern University of Chicago under direct supervision of Professor Jeremiah Stamler. He under went Postgraduate training and career at Medical School of University of Naples. He is a specialist in Internal Medicine and Cardiology. He is a full Professor at Department of Public Health, University of Naples Federico II and former Chief of Department of Preventive Medical Sciences at Medical School of University Federico II - Naples. He is director of Research Unit of prevention on workplaces, Department of Public Health, University Federico II - Naples. He is Professor of Preventive Cardiology at the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine University of New York at Buffalo-USA. He is the Medical Chief of Department of Occupational Medicine at the University Hospital Federico II, Naples. He is in charge of Health Surveillance and Coordinator of all the Activities of the Occupational Medicine of the University Hospital Federico II, Naples. And Chairman of International Task Force for the Prevention of Cardiometabolic Diseases. He is been the author of more than 300 publications on peer reviewed journals on the prevention of CHD and health promotion in communities. He has delivered several invited lectures in International Symposia.