ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on long-latency disease, although much of the discussion is also relevant to diseases of short latency. It aims to give a socio-historical analysis of the reasons for the continuation of epidemics of occupational diseases and indicate ways by which these can be controlled. Epidemiology is the study of the distribution and determinants of disease. Originating in the study of epidemics of infectious disease, it is now the fundamental science of population health and the major method of studying human disease causation from any cause and over any time frame. Occupational diseases often have a long latency period between the start of exposure and the detection of clinical disease. While the average exposure levels have decreased with time in the developed world, the relative exposures between the developed and developing world have increased, and many more workers are exposed in the developing world.
