The health of the worker.

The health of the worker must nowadays be considered against a background of improved social conditions, of death rates which have fallen continuously for a century, and of a reduction in communicable diseases. At one time industrial medicine was preoccupied with the direct and demonstrably harmful effects of certain occupations on health (Schilling, 1956). Now that many of these situations have been brought under control, it can be concerned with the many physical and psychological factors of work which may influence health. Lord Horder (1956) wrote: " The relations between health and industry may be thought of in terms of a two-way track. Advances in the science and art of medicine can be of great service to industry if properly applied, and industry can make very useful contributions to medicine by studying the environmental conditions of large groups of workers and the influence of these conditions upon the health of the individual."