De Morbis Artificum Diatriba
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 Frontpage of the 1713 edition of the Diatriba | |
| Author | Bernardino Ramazzini |
|---|---|
| Language | Latin |
| Subject | Occupational medicine |
| Publisher | Giovanni Battista Conzatti |
Publication date |
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De Morbis Artificum Diatriba (English: Discourse on the Diseases of Workers) is the first book written specifically about occupational diseases and work-related risk prevention.[1] Written in Latin by Italian physician Bernardino Ramazzini (1633–1714), it is a founding work of occupational medicine and remains one of its most seminal, continuing to influence the field to this day.[2] It was first published in Modena in 1700 while Ramazzini was a professor of Practical Medicine at the University of Padua; its second, definitive edition was printed in Padua in 1713 while he was a professor of Theoretical Medicine at the university.[3]
For this work, Ramazzini is considered the father of occupational medicine.[4] The book is also a seminal work in the field of occupational health.[5] Cited by Adam Smith, Karl Marx, and Cotton Mather, it has been acknowledged or quoted directly in virtually all notable works on occupational medicine of the 19th and 20th centuries.[6]
It describes between 53 and 69 different professions; includes analytical and methodological approaches to diagnose and prevent diseases associated with them;[7] and details health hazards posed by chemicals, dust, metals, repetitive or violent motions, odd postures, and other disease-causative agents encountered by workers in them.[8]
The breadth of occupations Ramazzini covers is so great that there remains even today a high chance that one might inadvertently address an occupation-related illness already touch on by Ramazzini. A paper discussing grain itch indicated that the book described the same disorder, and it was proposed that farmer's lung should be renamed Ramazzini's Disease.[9]
The book describes Ramazzini’s observations made as a doctor and as an investigator of the territory, combining clinical remarks of the patient-worker with the description of working conditions and techniques, and related risks to health.[10] In 54 chapters the book reports health risks faced by workers in more than one hundred occupations and currently it is considered the first textbook of occupational medicine[11] and a precursor of occupational health.[12]
The Diatriba describes specific disorders in individuals and in groups of workers carrying out the same activity. Whereas some clinical pictures deserve only a historical interest, several disorders represent even today a health problem for specific groups of workers. Ramazzini proposed several precautions for the prevention of diseases whose basic idea, mostly based on common sense, was correctly conceived.
Musculoskeletal disorders
Much space is dedicated to the discussion of musculoskeletal disorders in workers employed in many jobs. Ramazzini understood that different morbid pictures were associated with postures, movement repetition, weight lifting, muscular load, which today define the ergonomic factors.[13] The Diatriba lists 26 different occupations, from brick-makers to sailors and from printers to writers and notaries, affected by all kinds of musculoskeletal disorders.[14]
Stress-related health disorders
Ramazzini identified stress-related health disorders associated with circumstances involving high job demands and repetitive job activity. In addition to the continuous sitting responsible for sedentariness issues, he detected in accounting clerks the psychological stress to avoid mistakes or cause loss to their employers and keenly noted that an intense application of the mind harmed those workers.[15]
Breast cancer in nuns
Ramazzini described consumptive affections mostly in heavy occupations such as miners. However, he also made an explicit reference to tumors. In fact, he reported that breast cancers were very often found in nuns’ breasts more than in any other women. He explained that it might be due to their celibate life. This remark anticipated the observation between nulliparity and hormonal status of women by centuries. For this remark, Ramazzini has been acknowledged as a precursor in the search for the prevention of neoplastic diseases.[16]
Sensory system diseases and other disorders
He also observed diseases associated with the sensory system such as visual fatigue problems in people who did small objects,[17] deafness among workers exposed to noise,[18] and voice disorders and dysphonia involving intense voice exercise.[19]
The Diatriba reports morbid forms such as dust-related lung problems and serious neurological disorders associated with lead and mercury exposure.[20] It reports still existing clinical pictures and important widespread health problems: bronchopulmonary pictures such as asthma in millers and hypersensitivity pneumonitis, of which he understood the pathophysiological mechanisms.[21] The book describes risks from excessive exposure to heat and sunlight and night work health troubles[22] and it was the first to report headaches from chemical substances.[23]
Environmental pollution
The Diatriba reports an episode of chemical pollution associated with pathological pictures affecting the inhabitants who lived near a polluting site thus revealing that Ramazzini’s attention was not limited to the working environment but extended to the context of life. The episode is one of the earliest examples of chemical pollution associated with an increase in disease. Reporting of unexpected health damages represented yesterday and represents today, an alarm signal of a potential environmental problem of interest for public health. These observations have been valued as they anticipated modern epidemiological tools in work and living environments.[24]
Inequalities and vulnerability
Much attention was given to inequality and above all to the vulnerability that today remains a topic of great concern. He described health-related problems in ethnic minorities of that time and women. Women were usually employed in different occupations entailing exposure to dangerous materials and ergonomically challenging works, in agriculture and transport of stones and bricks, although they were committed to the production of commodities such as pasta, bread and clothing items.[25]
Risk prevention and health protection
The Diatriba goes well beyond the identification of health risks in workplaces and description of the work-related diseases and also deals with risk communication, risk prevention and health promotion.[26] It foreshadowed many interventions that are well established today: removing the polluted air emitted from the minerals and carrying out the work in spacious places, interrupting the prolonged posture, reducing the working time to limit the exposure to hazards, using personal protective tools.[27]
His main precept was given in 1711 in his Oratio xiii. De contagiosa epidemia. On that occasion, he pronounced the well-known precept "far better to prevent than to cure". This expression evokes the phrase he used some years later in the dissertation on nuns' health that appeared in the 1713 edition of the Diatriba. He explained, with other words, the idea already expressed earlier, preaching this new message fully and with courageous perseverance.
Editions and translations
Several editions and translations of the Diatriba have been published since its first edition in 1700 and its second in 1713. It was translated into Italian, English, French, Dutch, and German in the 18th century, and further translations in Italian, French, and German were published in the 19th century.[6] It would go on to be published in Japanese, Russian, and Swedish in the 20th century.[28]
Wilmer Cave Wright's 1940 English translation of the 1713 edition, published by the University of Chicago Press, helped rekindle interest in the book and garner it newfound notoriety.[29] During her tenure at Bryn Mawr College, Wright was induced to produce the translation by the influence of Dr. Haven Emerson, a well-known name in public health; it was the second book for the New York Academy of Medicine's History of Medicine Series, the first being Wright's translation of one of Girolamo Fracastoro's works.[6]
Just 300 copies of this edition were produced, and it was out of print by 1942. Despite Emerson having implored them to do so in 1949, the New York Academy of Medicine would not reprint it until 1964, with some of its extant copies, of which 3,000 were produced in toto, still being held by them as of 1996.[28]
Arguably the greatest edition of the book was published in 1983 by Gryphon Editions as part of their Classics of Medicine Library series, putting Ramazzini in the company of others such as William Osler, William Harvey, Rudolf Virchow, Thomas Sydenham, Joseph Lister, Harvey Cushing, and Ignaz Semmelweis.[28]
A 1993 edition, based off of Wright's translation, was published in Thunder Bay, Canada by OH&S Press.[28]
The Japanese translation was published as an eleven-part series from January 1962 through February 1963, with the final version coming out in 1979.[30]
With its publication supported by the Swedish Work Environment Fund, the Swedish translation appeared in 1991.[31]
Legacy
While introducing a resolution[a] to amend the U.S. Code in 1979 during the 96th United States Congress, George Miller began with a quote from the book: "Tis a sordid profit that's accompanied by the by the destruction of health."[31]
A rare copy of the first edition can be found on display in Ramazzini Hall, a section of the University of Occupational and Environmental Health in Kitakyushu, Japan.[32]