ICOH Dublin 2018

During the last month the Heritage Centre has been assisting the Faculty of Occupational Medicine in preparing their final presentation to the International Commission of Occupational Health to hold the 2018 Congress in Dublin.

The ICOH congress is a global Occupational Health event, held every three years, which attracts over 2,000 occupational health professionals. In was last held in Dublin in 1984. The Faculty's bid was submitted in December 2011, and Dublin is on the final shortlist, along with Marrakech, Morocco. The theme of the bid is 'From Ireland to the World – Uniting Occupational Health Professions in Ireland in 2018 to promote the health of the worker internationally'. You can view the full bid document here and find out more about the bid here. You can also follow the progress of the bid on Twitter - @ICOHDublin2018.

Last month the Secretary General of ICOH, Dr Sergio Iavicoli came to visit Dublin as part of the bid process. The tour ended with a dinner in Number 6, where a number of items from the Heritage Collections relating to Occupational Health were on display; including two copies of Ramazzini's seminal work on Occupational Health, De Morbis Artificum (Diseases of Tradesmen).

Bernardo Ramazzini (1633-1714) was an Italian physician and teacher. His early works were concerned with the epidemiology of malaria, but in 1703 he published his work on Occupational Health. In this work Ramazzini outlines the health hazards of chemicals, dust, metals, reparative or violent motions and odd postures encountered by workers in over 50 occupations. Ramazzini suggested that the question 'What is your occupation?' should be added to the list of questions asked of patients by their doctors.

The Latin copy of Ramazzini held by Dun's Library is missing its title page, and consequently the information on when and where it was published is also missing. Dr Iavicoli, an expert on Ramazzini, was able to identify our copy as the 2nd edition published in Padua in 1713.

Title page of the 1705 English translation of Ramazzini in Dun's Library