Short Takes

CSPH Researcher Edits ILO Encyclopedia

“Tens of millions of people die from occupational related accidents, illnesses and diseases. From coal mining to the manufacture of modern computer chips, the workplace is filled with hazards,” says CSPH associate Professor Jeanne Mager Stellman, Ph.D., editor-in-chief of the new fourth edition of the Encyclopedia of Occupational Health and Safety. She points out that, “It was just such industrial and work-related exposures that prompted thefirst edition of the encyclopedia in 1930.

Unfortunately, the need today is every bit as great as it was in 1930 when the first edition was published by the international Labor Organization, a specialized agency of the United Nations.

The encyclopedia is the definitive source of occupational health information for the medical and legal professions, and is used by labor unions and industry. It is ironic that in the developing world people continue to die from hazards first mentioned in the Bible, while in the industrialized world, people are falling prey to new health and safety problems such as those surrounding the use of computer screens,” said Stellman, an occupational and environmental health scientist in the Division of Health Policy and Management. as editor of the four-volume encyclopedia (also available on CD-ROM), Stellman developed the contents and coordinated the contributions of several thousand internationally recognized authorities in the increasingly complex specialty of occupational health. The encyclopedia is the definitive source of occupational health information for the medical and legal professions, and is used by labor unions and industry.

The Treaty of Versailles, which ended World War I, called for the ILO to protect workers “against sickness, disease, and injury arising out of their employment,” which led to the first edition of the encyclopedia. According to the preface of its 1930 first edition, the encyclopedia is designed “to make sciences the servant of practical action” and “keeps a middle path between a purely scientific work intended for the expert and a popular manual.”

After four years devoted to the encyclopedia, Stellman returns to her research interest and expertise in women’s health issues and research gender bias, as well as Agent Orange and its effects on Vietnam War veterans [see related article].

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