Increased levels of disease and poverty among workers during the Industrial Revolution led Rudolf Virchow and others to explore how social and economic conditions affected health, disease, and the practice of medicine [1]. The 50th anniversary of NIOSH comes at another inflection point in history when we are experiencing a fundamental reorganization of the world of work. Promoting a social approach to medicine that accounts for the association between work and health offers the occupational safety and health (OSH) community a timely opportunity to apply a new perspective to addressing the complex challenges of the “Fourth Industrial Revolutionexternal icon.”
OSH has historically been a mostly technical field concerned with finding and removing hazards found at the workplace [2]. Central to the field is the biomedical model of medicine, which focuses on naming a specific physical cause for illness or injury and eliminating it [3]. This approach has contributed to significant declines in illness and injury among workers over the past 50 years.
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