ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the reasons why the approach to occupational health differs from the mechanistic outlook that serves well in occupational safety. The study of the health of workers and the diseases caused by their work is hence very complex. Occupational health may be defined as the maintenance of the individual worker’s state of well-being and freedom from occupationally related disease or injury. The human body can tolerate some levels of exposure to some hazards without detriment. In general, occupational safety deals with accidents and their prevention, while occupational health deals with occupational diseases and their prevention. The healthy worker effect arises because, on average, workers are in better health than the general population for two reasons: first, because the general population includes people unable to work because of ill health; and second, because workers in ill health tend to leave work.
