Health Unit To Forestall Disease

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30578, 22 October 1964, Page 23

Health Unit To Forestall Disease

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, October 20. New Zealand had shown herself in company with other advanced industrial communities in the world by establishing an occupational health unit, said the Minister of Health (Mr McKay), when he officially opened the unit today.

The opening of the unit marked a milestone in the development of occupational health services and in a sense might be termed their coming of age, said the Minister. “We are moving into a phase where we are attempting to forestall the appearance of disease at a much earlier stage.” The new unit would carry out investigations of dusts, fumes and gases in the air at work places. It was equipped to assess accurately exposure to noise and it would be able to carry out a number of delicate tests to determine whether men were absorbing some potentially hazardous compounds and whether these were actually affecting them at the time. The provision of good occupational health services for the large number of small factories spread over a wide area in New Zealand was a difficult matter and one solution had been the establishment of clinics where the aggregation of factories and the number of workers was large enough, said Mr McKay. In this, the Department of Health had the wholehearted co-operation of the Workers’ Compensation Board and the Waterfront Industry Commission. Farm Chemicals Because of the great upsurge in chemical methods in farming with its attendant hazards to orchardists, farmers and farm workers, occupational health services were of great importance in the agricultural field. Over the years a vigorous education campaign on the dangers of poisoning had shown results, but much more remained to be done, he said.

Occupational health did not stop at preventing cases of obvious disease. Its ultimate aim was to prevent any kind of disturbance of bodily function caused by a man’s occupation. In addition, it sought, to control the work environment and to regulate working conditions in order to encourage positive health, he said.