De Morbis Artificum Diatriba

The De Morbis Artificum Diatriba (Dissertation on Workers' Diseases) is the first book exploring working environments with the aim to identify the hazards that could harm health and cause specific disorders in individuals and in groups of workers who carried out the same activity (occupational diseases)(Di Pietro P 1999, Carnevale F et al. 2009). It was written in Latin by Bernardino Ramazzini and published in Modena in 1700. In 1713 the second edition was printed in Padua. For this work Ramazzini is the acknowledged father of occupational medicine (Pagel JL 1891; Garrison FH 1934) and the Diatriba has been cited by Adam Smith, Karl Marx, and Cotton Mather.

De Morbis Artificum Diatriba

Frontpage of the definitive 1713 edition of De Morbis Artificum Diatriba
Author	Bernardino Ramazzini
Country	Republic of Venice
Language	Latin
Subject	Occupational Medicine
Publication date	1713
Media type	Print

The birth of the Diatriba

The book describes Ramazzini’s observations made as a doctor and as an investigator of the territory, combining clinical remarks of the patient-worker with the description of working conditions and techniques, and related risks to health (Di Pietro P 1999). In 54 chapters the book reports health risks faced by workers in more than one hundred occupations and currently it is considered the first textbook of occupational medicine[1][2][3] (Franco G 1999; Carnevale F et al 2009, Carnevale F 2016) and a precursor of occupational health (Franco G 2021).

The Diatriba describes specific disorders in individuals and in groups of workers carrying out the same activity. Whereas some clinical pictures deserve only a historical interest, several disorders represent even today a health problem for specific groups of workers. Ramazzini proposed several precautions for the prevention of diseases whose basic idea, mostly based on common sense, was correctly conceived.

Musculoskeletal disorders

Syllabus artificum de quorum Morbis fit mentio - List of craftsmen whose diseases are mentioned; it lists 67 employments and working activities.

Much space is dedicated to the discussion of musculoskeletal disorders in workers employed in many jobs. Ramazzini understood that different morbid pictures were associated with postures, movement repetition, weight lifting, muscular load, which today define the ergonomic factors (Franco G & Fusetti L 2004). The Diatriba lists 26 different occupations, from brick-makers to sailors and from printers to writers and notaries, affected by all kinds of musculoskeletal disorders (Franco G 2010).

Stress-related health disorders

Ramazzini identified stress-related health disorders associated with circumstances involving high job demands and repetitive job activity. In addition to the continuous sitting responsible for sedentariness issues, he detected in accounting clerks the psychological stress to avoid mistakes or cause loss to their employers and keenly noted that an intense application of the mind harmed those workers (Franco G 2020a).

Breast cancer in nuns

Ramazzini described consumptive affections mostly in heavy occupations such as miners. However, he also made an explicit reference to tumors. In fact, he reported that breast cancers were very often found in nuns’ breasts more than in any other women and explained that it might be due to their celibate life. This remark anticipated the observation between nulliparity and hormonal status of women by centuries. For this remark, Ramazzini has been acknowledged as a precursor in the search for the prevention of neoplastic diseases (Bode AM & Dong Z 2009).

Sensory system diseases and other disorders

He also observed diseases associated with the sensory system such as visual fatigue problems in people who did small objects (Franco G 2011), deafness among workers exposed to noise (Paladino ME et al 2023) and voice disorders and disphonia involving intense voice exercise (Franco G 2008).

The Diatriba reports morbid forms such as dust-related lung problems and serious neurological disorders associated with lead and mercury exposure (Riva MA et al 2018). It reports still existing clinical pictures and important widespread health problems: bronchopulmonary pictures such as asthma in millers and hypersensitivity pneumonitis, of which he understood the pathophysiological mechanisms (Bisetti A 1985). The book describes risks from excessive exposure to heat and sunlight and night work health troubles (Galimberti E et al 2014) and it was the first to report headaches from chemical substances.[4]

Environmental pollution

The Diatriba reports an episode of chemical pollution associated with pathological pictures affecting the inhabitants who lived near a polluting site thus revealing that Ramazzini’s attention was not limited to the working environment but extended to the context of life. The episode is one of the earliest examples of chemical pollution associated with an increase in disease. Reporting of unexpected health damages represented yesterday and represents today, an alarm signal of a potential environmental problem of interest for public health. These observations have been valued as they anticipated modern epidemiological tools in work and living environments (Zocchetti C 2000).

Inequalities and vulnerability

Much attention was given to inequality and above all to the vulnerability that today remains a topic of great concern. He described health-related problems in ethnic minorities of that time and women. Women were usually employed in different occupations entailing exposure to dangerous materials and ergonomically challenging works, in agriculture and transport of stones and bricks, although they were committed to the production of commodities such as pasta, bread and clothing items (Franco G 2012).

Diatriba (1713). «Mens quidem erat de Morbis Monialium, & curatione differere; sed satius duxi, Dissertationem hanc de illarum tuenda Valetudine præmittere, longe gloriosius esse existimans a morbis præservare, quam eosdem curare» (the intention was undoubtedly to take into account the illnesses and the care of the nuns, but I thought it would be preferable to include an essay on the protection of their health, believing that it is more convenient to prevent diseases than to treat them).

Risk prevention and health protection

The Diatriba goes well beyond the identification of health risks in workplaces and description of the work-related diseases and also deals with risk communication, risk prevention and health promotion (Carnevale F et al 2015; Franco G 2021). It foreshadowed many interventions that are well established today: removing the polluted air emitted from the minerals and carrying out the work in spacious places, interrupting the prolonged posture, reducing the working time to limit the exposure to hazards, using personal protective tools (Franco G 2020b).

His main precept was given in 1711 in his Oratio xiii. De contagiosa epidemia. On that occasion, he pronounced the well-known precept “far better to prevent than to cure”. This expression evokes the phrase he used some years later in the dissertation on nuns’ health that appeared in the 1713 edition of the Diatriba. He explained, with other words, the idea already expressed earlier, preaching this new message fully and with courageous perseverance.