Medical screening for occupational disease risk is not a control measure

Our plain-English summary of Medical screening for occupational disease risk is not a control measure, by S.M. Kennedy (American Journal of Industrial Medicine, 1991).

The study

• Author: S.M. Kennedy
• Journal: American Journal of Industrial Medicine
• Published: 1991;20(2):271-2
• Type of article: Comment, Letter
• Cited by: 2 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

In plain English

This was a letter to the editor, not a research study, and it reported no new data. The author responded to a 1990 commentary by Kogan and Polzik, which had proposed reducing the risk of asbestosis and other occupational diseases by not hiring the people most sensitive to asbestos-containing dust or by increasing individual resistance. That commentary had also looked to studies of genotype to help set up medical selection of workers in asbestos hazard industries. The author compared the proposal to Jonathan Swift's satirical "A Modest Proposal." The author argued that medical screening in industry is reasonable for understanding how disease develops and for advising prospective workers about job risks. Using it to exclude high-risk individuals from employment, the author argued, conflicts with individual liberty. The author agreed that asbestos substitutes are not risk-free, but argued that screening does not belong in debates over banning asbestos. The author concluded that screening used to place and restrict workers "has no place in any society."

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: letter to the editor (opinion piece; no new data)
• Exposure: Not a study of exposure. The letter discusses Kogan and Polzik's [1990] proposal to reduce the risk of asbestosis and other occupational diseases by not hiring persons most sensitive to asbestos-containing dust or by increasing individual resistance.
• Main results:
  • The author noted that Kogan and Polzik looked forward to studies of genotype that would help establish medical selection of workers in asbestos hazard industries.
  • The author compared the commentary to Swift's satire "A Modest Proposal."
  • The author argued (without data) that screening to understand disease and to advise prospective workers about job risks is a reasonable objective.
  • The author argued that screening to identify and exclude high-risk individuals from employment conflicts with individual liberty.
  • The author agreed with Kogan and Polzik that asbestos substitutes are not risk-free and that other known carcinogens are not prohibited, calling these public policy dilemmas.
  • The author argued that medical screening does not belong in the debate over prohibiting asbestos.
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that medical screening in industry can serve scientific objectives, but that as a bureaucratic tool for selectively placing and restricting workers it has no place in any society.

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Occupational Disease.

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