Just as bug has more than one meaning – one for the biologist and another for the computer engineer, occupationist that until now had one meaning will have another.
In this website, occupationist is used to denote ‘an expert in diseases and other concerns of occupations’. And we all know that occupation means a profession, or a job one does.
The Occupationist via occupationist.com is an ambitious effort founded in 2021 by Dr Ajay Sati to create awareness and offer occupational health advice to the massive mainstream audience that includes the workforce who may be self-employed individuals or MSMEs and large corporations employing thousands of employees.
Occupational health advice is not about treatment. It is about how work, workplace, working conditions can be better managed so that employees do not get sick in the first place. Occupational health issues are managed proactively as well as retrospectively via inputs by an OH physician who is an expert in diseases of occupations.
The reader will be aghast to know 2.9 billion workers still don’t have access to competent occupational health services. The lack of occupational health care results in annual loss of 4-6% of global GDP. (2.8 trillion US dollars approx.).
According to the International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates, every year over 2.3 million women and men die at work from an occupational injury or disease. Of these, 350,000 deaths are due to fatal accidents and almost 2 million deaths are due to work-related diseases, most of which are preventable.
In addition, over 313 million workers are involved in non-fatal occupational accidents causing serious injuries and absences from work. The ILO estimates that 160 million cases of non-fatal work-related diseases occur annually.
The reader is requested to keep in mind – Whenever sick, also think if occupation is the cause and seek appropriate solutions before it is late.