1998 and beyond--Legge's legacy to modern occupational health

Thomas Legge achieved much in his professional lifetime. The purpose of this lecture is to highlight some of these achievements in the light of what we have achieved since then. In other words, if Legge was in the audience today, how would he feel we have performed? On 'industrial maladies', progress has been made in reducing poisoning by heavy metals but our success with chrome ulceration and lead depends on surveillance and control. Room for improvements remain. For asbestos related diseases, Legge would be disappointed with our progress. Two areas of particular concern to Legge were upper limb disorders and 'occupational neurosis'. Much remains to be done. As a member of the 1st Committee on Compensatable Diseases, a review of the Scheme to date will focus on the common diseases now being prescribed and on the threats to the Scheme from the Benefits review. For the future, there are many challenges in the newer workplaces and the changing workforces. The HSE initiatives for a new occupational strategy and the Government Green Paper on Public Health provide great opportunities for the occupational health professional to influence the nature and shape of future public health strategy. Above all we must have some of Legge's characteristics to achieve this-vision, passion and commitment.