Historical Perspectives in Occupational Medicine. Victoria M. Trasko: Champion of State-Based Surveillance of Occupational Diseases in the United States, 1937 to 1971

Details

• Personal Author:
  Castellan, Robert M. ; Costa CA ; Richards TB ; Yaffe CD
• Description:
  Victoria M. Trasko (1907-1979), a relatively unknown figure to many currently practicing occupational health specialists, was a pioneer in state-based surveillance of occupational diseases in the United States. To highlight her accomplishments during her career with the United States Public Health Service from 1937 to 1971, this report briefly reviews her publications on occupational disease surveillance. Her span of work includes guidelines for state industrial hygiene programs, numbers of workers in state occupational health programs, compilation of state and local laws related to industrial hygiene, proposals for standardized reporting of occupational disease, and analysis of trends in workers' compensation and mortality statistics for occupational diseases. She pilot tested the first state-based model system for occupational disease reporting in the United States. She documented the great difficulty experienced by states in getting physicians to report cases of occupational diseases, and pointed out that surveillance of other existing data sources was worthwhile, at least for some occupational diseases. She was the first to report on the distribution of silicosis cases in the United States by state, industry, and job title. She was the first to comment on mortality trends for the pneumoconioses and to document problems in comparability between different International Classification of Disease (ICD) periods. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Occupational Health Respiratory Tract Diseases Safety Silicosis
• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: History Of Medicine Industrial Hygiene Industrial Hygienists Occupational Disease Surveillance Pneumoconioses Respiratory System Disorders Silicosis Surveillance Vicki Trasko
• ISSN:
  0271-3586
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  OSHA Region 3 ; West Virginia
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DRDS - Division of Respiratory Disease Studies
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  419-428
• Volume:
  22
• Issue:
  3
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20049818
• Citation:
  Am J Ind Med 1992 Sep; 22(3):419-428
• Contact Point Address:
  Robert M. Castellan, M.D., M.P.H., 944 Chestnut Ridge Road, Morgantown, WV 26505
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1992
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Source Full Name:
  American Journal of Industrial Medicine
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:0abba342961e2f58526ca06efd54d84b76dd873bd38ae2bc20b4436bc1230f72057852e665bf559db18b70cb8d4ea5df7ad345529a25d7567514842475813508
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/210443/cdc_210443_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 776.00 KB ]