NIVA course on maritime medicine
CMSS - co-organiser of a NIVA course in Denmark
On the 12th - 15th of May 2014 the NIVA course 'Maritime Occupational Medicine Exposures and Health Effects at Sea' was conducted in Helsingør.
The course is one of a number of NIVA courses on maritime topics which has been held in the Nordic countries in recent years. The courses are addressed to professionals dealing with seafarers' and fishermen's health. This course, which was the first to have been held in Denmark, was organised by a Scandinavian working group, headed by Jørgen Riis Jepsen from CMHS.
The course provided an overview of current issues regarding maritime physical, chemical and biological risk exposures and the resulting health outcomes with special emphasis on recent and ongoing research in the field and the identification of research needs.
Seafarers’ and fishermen’s health is influenced by a magnitude of exposures in the maritime setting. Many of these are known from land-based occupations but at sea exposures may be combined and differ in terms of their level and duration.
During the course, 43 participating professionals dealing with maritime health issues, e.g. researchers, seafarer’s doctors, advisors to the trade from government agencies, companies, and occupational health services became familiarized with work-related diseases of maritime workers.