The importance of gerohygiene for the identification and assessment of occupational, environmental and social risks

A consistent criterion and scale are proposed for the identification and comparative evaluation of occupational, environmental and social factors affecting human health. With the aid of the criterion for the annual risk increase (ARI) it is possible to determine harmful effects of factors of the environment by means of the measurement of the rate of the gain in the population risk for chronic health problems. For the hygienic assessment in a unitary scale of ARI values for a number of diseases there are used control and background values characterizing the age-related trend in the risk of these diseases in the absence of harmful exogenous factors. The application of the criteria and ARI scale is illustrated by the data on age dynamics of the risk of chronic bronchitis in dockers-drivers, the dynamics of the risk of long-term diseases with the temporary disability (workers, specialists, leaders of industrial enterprises in acceptable and hazardous conditions), the dynamics of the risk of chronic fatigue syndrome (working in harmful conditions, smoking and non-smoking women, women living near heavy traffic). The amount of the ARI for the chronic fatigue under exposure to occupational and non-occupational can coincide.