Abstract

Russian scientists in XIX century Fedor Erismann, Alexander Pogozhev, Alexander Nikitin, Vladimir Svyatlovskiy, already at the early stages of Russian industry development began to think about improving working conditions. With the emergence of new high-tech industries during the XIX-XXI centuries the scientific priorities of OH research have also changed. By the end of the XIX century, with the transition of the main labour of workers from crafts to industry, new directions of these studies also arise. The division of industry into extractive, processing and smaller subspecies led to the emergence of such a concept as sectoral occupational health.

This was most vividly represented in the USSR: already 20 years after the victory of the Great October Revolution, 18 research institutes were active in the country. Due to the presence of various industries and agriculture in the regions, they specialised in studying local issues of OH.

The Leningrad and Gorky institutes were pioneers in the study of toxicology and vibration disease: in the northeast of Russia and Volga-region there are many heavy engineering and chemical industries. The Kiev and Saratov institutes have always been more focused on agricultural workers`s health. Donetsk, Krivoy Rog and Novokuznetsk institutes dealt with the problems of diseases of miners and workers in the mining industry. The Yerevan and Tbilisi institutes studied the issues of preserving the health of tea-growers, workers in the tobacco and food industries.

At the turn of the 20th and 21 st centuries, special attention is paid to studying the impact of computer and new information technologies on worker`s health. The appearance in this regard of many new diseases adds them to the classification list of occupational diseases.

The development of new technologies and generates new risk factors and entails the development of new directions in the formation of the modern state of OH.