{
  "abstract": "Objective Long before ‘occupational epidemiology’ existed as a formal discipline, astute clinicians, workers or local observers reported unusual disease patterns in specific jobs. These early sentinel events—individual cases or clusters—often offered the first clues of workplace hazards. This talk revisits historical examples.Methods A historical review focusing on illustrative cases where such sentinel events initiated the recognition of an occupational aetiology.Results In 1775, British surgeon Percivall Pott noted a high incidence of scrotal cancer in young chimney sweeps and linked it to soot exposure—a landmark observation, widely considered the first formal identification of an occupational cancer. In the 1870s, German mine physicians Hesse and Harting reported lung cancer among Schneeberg miners, noting that locals were already familiar with the link of the illness to mining. Later, radon exposure was confirmed as the cause. In 1895, surgeon Ludwig Rehn described bladder cancer in three dye workers. The link with aromatic amines exposure was confirmed by animal experiments (Hueper, 1938) and epidemiological work by Robert Case (1954) in British dye workers¬—regarded as the prototype of a historical cohort study. Bramwell (1914) noted scleroderma in stonemasons but wrongly attributed it to ‘holding cold chisels’; the link to silica exposure was confirmed by Erasmus (1957) and others. A sarcoidosis cluster in fluorescent lamp workers led Hardy and Tabershaw (1947) to identify chronic beryllium disease. In 1977, concerns about infertility among pesticide workers prompted a NIOSH investigation, confirming azoospermia/oligospermia linked to dibromochloropropane exposure. More recently (2000), when eight cases of a rare lung disease (bronchiolitis obliterans) appeared in popcorn factory workers, a prompt plant-wide investigation identified diacetyl, a butter flavouring chemical, as the likely cause.Conclusion Observations by clinicians and workers have played —and continue to play—a pivotal role in identifying occupational hazards, often preceding confirmation through epidemiological research.",
  "authors": [
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "KU Leuven, Belgium"
      ],
      "name": "Steven Ronsmans"
    }
  ],
  "title": "8292553 Sentinel occupational illness outbreaks from an historical perspective",
  "uid": "35d307b2-8c8b-566d-9283-448d43b45fa1"
}