The purpose of the visit of guests from Finland was an international conference: our University turned the center of discussion of crucial issues related to the health protection labour

 

forces in the last days of February. Mrs. Eevu - Liisa Haapaniemi and the Head of the respected Institute from Helsinki together with NWSMU are involved in the cooperation on a number of programs. Finnish guests emphasized that it is honor to collaborate with our university and gladly congratulated the department of occupational medicine with 90th anniversary.

Harri Vainio hold a lecture on the topic " Preventive health care and health at the workplace".

- The world is really changing rapidly - he said, continuing the thought of previous speakers, including the head of the Department of Occupational Medicine, MD, Professor S.V.Grebenkov - and therefore allow myself a short excursus to the issue history, based on the statistics for different countries of the world of scientists from the Carolina University. Your department was created in 1924, and then the average-expectancy life of Russian men was just ... 36 years, infant mortality - 300 deaths per 1000, now it is 10 . Today's rates are certainly incomparable. Your country has changed, but there are new challenges and menaces. Welfare of the country is always dependent on the well-being of its workers. Job gives life dignity ...

To the surprise of some participants of the conference the Director of the Finnish Institute spoke about global risks related to the population health, including alcohol consumption and smoking. For a while it seemed that probably all the problems with medicine and health in Finland have already been solved if the Finnish colleague touch such a topic as bad habits. But maybe there is a shard of truth because European legislation regulates liability for occupational diseases and labour conditions otherwise. It is concern of the employer and not the state. But Harri Vainio insisted:

- Alcohol as a risk factor is a acute problem in Finland. 12.5 liters of pure alcohol per capita per year! The consumption curve creeps up. At risk zone are 6.39 % at men and 1.17 % at women. Mortality from liver cirrhosis from 2000 to 2005 increased significantly. Before cases of liver cirrhosis due to alcohol consumption by women were rare. Now statistics is that women die from liver cirrhosis even oftener than men 40 years ago ...

And those who is in the category of 15 + are at risk of dying before age of 55. To change this situation it is necessary to de-emphasize the focus from the clinic in the field of preventive medicine.

During the break of meetings we asked Harri Vainio to answer the question: what tasks are priority in preventive medicine for Finland and whether they are pan-European?

- Of course, we need to prevent and eliminate occupation associated the morbidity: every year 25000 employees in Finland can not continue to work. We have 260000 pensioners with disabilities and they got disability status at age about 52. Principally we identify two categories of pathologies: musculoskeletal diseases and ... mental. Yes, mental, do not be surprised . It all starts with depression. We are very concerned about how to reduce the growth of such pathologies, and we are sure that it should be solved by preventive medicine.

The statistics speak for itself: 260000 disability pensioners, 25000 new pensioners each year, with borderline diseases, does not require compensation, but supposing disability, plus 6000 people with annually re- discovered and confirmed occupational diseases, for population of Finland in 5,6 million, where 2.3 million people of working age, these rates are not low.

Alcohol aggravates this difficult situation. The critical number of dose for us is 21 a week. Dose is for about a bottle of beer. So this dose is seriously dangerous for the health of 40% men of working age. Alcoholic risks have waiters, barmen, their risk of getting cancer is 4 times higher than for other workers. We also note the growth of mental factors in women. Thus the job is the reason - a communication problem, the boss treated badly and as a result it provokes depression and alcohol dependence.

 

Nowadays the very concept of health is changing. It is no longer only about the physical condition, but also the mental and psychological health. Most of us are not healthy, we have to think how to adapt to the existing conditions in order to keep a capacity for work. And to prevent health risks associated not only with job. Or not directly with the job.