An industrial health service in Norway.

Norway has an area of approximately 320,000 square kilometres, with a population of only about 3*2 millions. About 30% of the population live in the cities, whereas 20% live in suburban and industrial areas and other population centres, and the remaining 50% in rural areas. The main occupations in Norway are agriculture and forestry, fishing and whaling, manufacturing and trade, as well as business and transport. During the years preceding and following the last world war Norway has been increasingly industrialized. Thus, the census of 1946 revealed that those employed in manufacturing and trade constituted the largest occupational group, with a total of 480,000 persons, 80,000 of whom were women. The most important industrial enterprises are the iron and metal industry, the food industry, the pulp and paper industry, the textile industry, the chemical and electro-chemical industry, and mining. Most industrial and manufacturing concerns are small, employing between 20 and 100 workers. A small number of industrial firms (about 600) have more than 100 employees, and only about 100 firms have a staff of more than 500 workers. As industry has developed, the increasing problems of occupational hygiene and medical care called for the establishment of an industrial health service, with the following aims: (1) regular health control through periodical medical examinations, to protect and promote the health of the workers and other employees of industrial and other concerns; (2) to promote industrial hygiene. The former professor of hygiene at the University of Oslo, Carl Schioetz, was the pioneer in this work. In 1917 he tried to apply the principles mentioned above as a works doctor. Inspired by him and encouraged by his results, a few physicians interested in hygiene and occupational hygiene accepted in 1939 similar positions in other concerns. However, the work was still done on an experimental basis