Occupational diseases is considered a branch of hygiene.

• A. True
• B. False
• C. Not applicable
• D. Part of medicine

Answer: (B)

Occupational diseases are medical conditions caused by workplace exposures, and they are addressed through occupational medicine and public health. Hygiene as a term is about practices to preserve health and prevent disease in populations, not about classifying diseases themselves. The science that aims to prevent these diseases—industrial or occupational hygiene—focuses on anticipating, recognizing, evaluating, and controlling workplace hazards, not on labeling occupational diseases as a subset of hygiene. In practice, occupational health brings medical evaluation and treatment, while hygiene provides the preventive measures to avoid disease in the first place. For example, reducing dust exposure to prevent pneumoconiosis is a hygienic control, while diagnosing and treating a worker who develops the disease falls under occupational medicine. Therefore the statement is false.