Alexander Munn

bmj;379/oct14_2/o2452/FAF1faAlexander Munn (“Alex”) first became interested in occupational health as a national service doctor in the Royal Air Force when he saw cases of “the bends”—decompression sickness caused by high altitude flying in unpressurised aircraft. This led to a lifelong interest in the effects of work on health, and when he retired from full time employment in 1987 he was one of the best known doctors in the European chemical industry.Immediately after leaving the RAF in 1950, he joined ICI as an assistant works medical officer in the dyestuffs division at Huddersfield. The experience he gained there of toxic and carcinogenic and allergenic chemicals—and their effects on workers—proved to be invaluable when he was appointed in 1961 as the senior dyestuffs divisional medical officer, and inspired him to encourage his junior doctors to take a similar interest. He developed a keen interest in the emerging discipline of industrial hygiene, taking…
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