This fourth edition continues to provide a link between occupational health and clinical practice. It covers target organ systems that can be affected by hazardous exposures in workplaces, and it focuses on the clinical presentations, investigations and management of affected individuals. We have retained consideration of some special issues relevant to occupational medicine practice in this new edition.
The main emphasis continues to be prevention of disease and early detection of health effects. This edition of the book has been updated to include new materials, topics, and references. We have retained a few of the previous case studies and illustrations, and introduced several new ones. There are new chapters on audit and evidence-based practice and on occupational cancer. We trust that this edition addresses many of the recommendations that were provided by readers of the previous edition.
We have again asked international experts to author many of the chapters. Some of the authors are from Asia, and others from the US, UK, the Middle East and Australia. All the authors will have either clinical or academic experience in occupational medicine practice.
The book will be of interest to medical practitioners, especially those in primary care and doctors intending to pursue a career in occupational medicine. It would also be relevant for non-medical health and safety professionals wanting to know more about health effects resulting from occupational exposures. Other groups who may find this edition useful as a ready reference are medical students, occupational health nurses, or clinical specialists in fields such as dermatology, respiratory medicine or toxicology. The book is targeted at all those who are interested in the interaction between work and health, and how occupational diseases and work-related disorders may present.
David Koh qualified in medicine in Singapore, and completed his postgraduate training in the United Kingdom. He worked in Singapore for over 25 years where he served as Chair of the Department of Community, Occupational and Family Medicine and Director of the Centre for Environmental and Occupational Health Research, NUS, before joining the Universiti Brunei Darussalam in 2012. He is currently a Distinguished Professor, the Vice-President (Research and Innovation) and Assistant Vice-Chancellor.
His research and teaching interests are in occupational and environmental health — with particular interests in salivary biomarkers, occupational dermatology and education and training in occupational health. He has several hundred peer reviewed publications and edited several books. Professor Koh serves on advisory and editorial boards of major international occupational and environmental health journals, and has served as a WHO consultant in occupational health in several countries in the Asia-Pacific such as Vietnam, Myanmar, Indonesia and the Solomon Islands.
For his international work in occupational and environmental health, he has been con-ferred the Smiley Medal from the Faculty of Occupational Medicine of the Royal College of Physicians Ireland; the Wilf Howe Memorial Prize from the Faculty of Occupational Medicine, Royal College of Physicians London, and the Outstanding Volunteer Award from the Singapore Interna-tional Foundation.
Professor Tar-Ching Aw is presently Chief Occupational Health Advisor at the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC). He also retains academic links as Eminent Visiting Professor at the Universiti Brunei Darussalam and at the University of Occupational and Environmental Health in Japan, and as Adjunct Professor at the Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine, Florida International University.
Professor Aw has been based in the United Arab Emirates for the past nine years, during which time he was Director of the Institute of Public Health at the United Arab Emirates University (UAEU). He also served as interim Dean of the College of Medicine at UAEU for 2 years, and in 2013, he was designated as Director of the first WHO Collaborating Centre for occupa-tional health in the Middle East.
Before moving to the Middle East, he was Professor of Occupational Medicine at the University of Kent in Canterbury, UK. He has also worked at the Institute of Occupational Health, University of Birmingham; at the National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health (NIOSH) in Cincinnati, and at the US CDC as an Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) Officer. His experience in occupational medicine includes hazard evaluation, delivery of occupational health to healthcare workers, and provision of training for occupational medicine practitioners and occupational health and safety professionals.
