The ‘Experimental Occupational Medicine’ section at the IPA conducts research into the links between occupational hazards and diseases. These investigations are carried out experimentally under controlled laboratory conditions, using a broad spectrum of methods ranging from an exposure laboratory cell culture.
In cell cultures (in vitro), specific processes can be analyzed in detail after exposure to toxic, inflammatory or carcinogenic substances. Such investigations enable to study mechanisms of action that cannot be studied directly in humans, whether for practical or ethical reasons. Furthermore, these methods make an important contribution to reducing animal testing.
In the exposure laboratory, study participants are exposed to defined concentrations of gases, aerosols, or dusts under the strictest safety precautions and in accordance with the approval of the relevant ethics committee. Besides the physical reactions, the uptake of these substances into the body (biomonitoring), early effects – i.e. effects that occur before clinical symptoms are recognizable – and local effects on the skin and respiratory tract can be examined using various analytical methods.
Besides these purely experimental approaches, the IPA also conducts field studies in companies or public institutions to analyze real occupational exposures and their health effects. Such studies are particularly valuable for confirming and supplementing the results of laboratory studies in the context of practical working conditions.
The knowledge gained and the expertise from occupational medical assessments are used as a basis for developing new prevention measures and further expanding the scientific basis for dealing with occupational diseases.
‘Experimental research in occupational medicine helps to identify and understand the effects of occupational exposure on the human body at an early stage. It provides the scientific basis for preventive health protection at the workplace.’