You are required to write an essay of not more than 2000 words, about a work-related disease or injury. In the essay, you should start off by defining the topic condition: what it is, what type of...

You are required to write an essay of not more than 2000 words, about a work-related disease or injury.


In the essay, you should start off by defining the topic condition:  what it is, what type of work it is associated with, and how prevalent it is.





You should then provide more information about your selected topic to include



•    Which occupation suffers with the condition/illness? You must support this by linking this to literature. If you choose a condition which is suffered by more than one occupation for example asthma, please stick to one occupation such as bakers as this will make the assignment easier for you.



•    Physiological and data and trends.  This should include the following: you need to discuss the normal physiology, for example what the organ(s) actually do, then discuss the way that your chosen condition alters the physiology.  This needs to be backed up by literature.

How many cases there are at the present time? Then you need to discuss and if possible illustrate with a graph/chart to illustrate if the illness/condition is rising or falling. This statistical information can be shown within an appendix. This must be linked to literature



•    You should then make a comment on general health and lifestyle factors that could make workers more vulnerable to the topic condition or related conditions. For example if the disease is related to the lungs one of the things to think about is smoking, also you need to think about the wider determinates of health, this section needs to be linked to literature.



•    Finally, make suggestions around steps which an individual and the employing organisation could take in order to protect the workforce from acquiring the condition in the first place. Here you could think about; risk assessment, COSHH, RIDDOR again this needs to be linked to literature



•    Discuss any measures that can be put into place to lessen the impact of the condition on the working population. Here think about; Health surveillance, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) mandatory training for example manual handling etc., again this needs to be linked to literature









Tips and guidance



1.    The assignment should have a short title, indicating the disease or injury to be discussed.