ABSTRACT
The 372,000 occupational illnesses include repeat trauma such as carpal tunnel syndrome, noise-induced hearing loss, and poisonings. It is suspected that many occupational illnesses go unreported when an employer or worker is not able to link exposure with the symptoms the employees are exhibiting. Also, physicians fail to ask the right questions regarding the patient’s employment history, which can lead to the commonest of diagnoses, a cold or flu, rather than an occupationally related illness or exposure. This has become very apparent with the recent occupational exposure to anthrax where a physician sent a worker home with anthrax without addressing his/her potential occupational exposure hazards. Unless physicians are trained in occupational medicine, they seldom address work as the potential exposure source.
