[The age distribution of occupational disease (author's transl)]

The author analyses the incidence of occupational diseases in 1979 and their distribution according to age. Almost two thirds of all occupational diseases are detected in the latter half of life. The fact that noise-induced defective hearing, degenerative changes in the locomotor system, silicosis, asbestosis, and cancer of the airways due to occupational factors occur late in life cannot be primarily attributed to the physiological process of ageing. Rather, the reason for the late manifestation of these occupational diseases is the long time of exposure needed for symptoms to appear. Like other pathological forms of ageing, the consequences of exposure to occupational hazards must be distinguished from physiological processes of ageing. Normal ageing presupposes health-promoting working and living conditions.