EDITORIAL |
Why I became an occupational physician ...
It was towards the end of World War II that the first seeds of my interest in the health of those at work were sown. As a teenager, I used to accompany my father on visits to his factory at weekends. Barbed-wire, torpedo nets, and the ubiquitous 5-gallon petrol can, found on every jeep and army lorry, were being manufactured 7 days a week. Restrictions imposed by blackout impeded good ventilation, so dust, fumes and also noise abounded. The adversities under which men and women worked prompted my question: ‘Who looked after their health?’In 1950, I applied to Sheffield (my home town), Manchester and Liverpool Universities for a place to study medicine. Initially I was turned down—‘too young’, was their reply, ‘go and do your military service first’. Liverpool, however, were persuaded by my great uncle, Rodhain, Dean of Tropical Medicine at Louvain University in Belgium, at least to grant me an interview. I got in, but throughout the 6-year course little if any mention was made of the diseases of occupation. Donald Hunter's influence had not reached this far north, and his landmark text was only first published in 1955, the year before I qualified.
After a 3-year short service commission in Tanganyika with the King's African Rifles based in Dar es Salaam, I undertook a full-time course in public health. This was on the advice of the British Postgraduate Medical Federation, who suggested that the best way into occupational medicine at that time (1960) was to gain a DPH, then a DIH from within industry working as an assistant industrial medical officer. During the DPH course I was fortunate to be able to visit Hamish Cameron's dynamic unit at Pilkington's Glass Works in St Helens, and that of Richard Trevethick at the giant steelworks of Steel Peach and Tozer in Sheffield. Hamish also ran a transitional workshop, and Richard a small glove factory for employees returning to work after serious injury or prolonged illness, in order to rehabilitate them back into their normal job, or other suitable work. Both these insights further enhanced my interest in health at work, and my wish to study it.
In 1963 I joined Michelin Tyres in Stoke on Trent, being further nurtured and guided by Ronald Lane and Tommy Scott at Manchester; then by Richard Schilling at the London School of Hygiene and by Bobby Case at the Chester Beatty Institute of Cancer Research—who better as mentors for encouraging a career in occupational medicine.
Now in retirement and looking back over 35 years in a previously rather unexplored industry healthwise, I feel rewarded by a branch of medicine that offered me research combined with day-to-day practice in the factory, and close contact with people at work. I have no regrets at having turned down an offer from Prince John to come back and work among his Masai people on completion of my military service.
Henley on Thames
Email: veys11{at}tesco.net
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