LABOUR: Health Hazards in the Workplace

By Marwaan Macan-Markar Reprint | | Print |

Marwaan Macan-Markar

MEXICO CITY, Oct 23 1999 (IPS) - The increasing health problems faced by women workers around the world will come in for particular scrutiny at the first international conference on health hazards in the workplace, to be held in Australia in July 2000.

The theme of the gathering, organised by the International Occupational Hygiene Association (IOHA) is “Occupational Hygiene in Developing Countries.” A review of the current “Safer Work for All” global campaign by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) will kick off proceedings on the first day of the conference in the northern city of Cairns.

The IOHA, recognising the importance of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in creating a healthier working environment, will devote a special discussion session on how best NGOs can pursue this role.

The question of the need for a “gender perspective” in the area of occupational health came up last month when some 740 delegates from around the world met in Rio de Janeiro at the Second International Congress on Women, Work and Health

The congress in Rio De Janeiro came three years after the first such congress, held in Barcelona, Spain.

Women occupy “pink-collar ghettos” in areas like health – where 95 percent of nurses are women – and the textile industry, in which they account for 70 percent of workers-not to mention domestic labour, which is virtually the exclusive terrain of women, the conference heard.

Margarida Barreto, a professor at the Santa Casa Faculty of Medicine in Sao Paulo, noted that work performed by women often involved “repetitive, monotonous tasks, lacking creativity, which require manual dexterity.”

A study in which she participated revealed that 85 percent of such women workers suffered injuries associated with repetitive movements and other job-related ailments – hernias caused by physical effort, hearing loss and occupational asthma, hormonal alterations affecting the menstrual cycle, alcoholism and depression.

The study found similarities with ILO research in this area – particular in the special occupational hazards women have faced since the growth of employment opportunities followed economic liberalisation and the trend to globalisation of the world’s economy.

During the past 15 years, the percentage of women in the workforce of most developing countries has risen to 50. Keeping pace with that growth were the increasing occupational hazards in the main sectors where employing women – services, manual and informal.

Women in the agricultural industry, for instance, suffered a “high incidence of injuries and diseases and are insufficiently reached by health services,” the study said.

Many women, according to ILO surveys, wound up doing jobs that men refused to do, such as the mixing or application of harmful pesticides without adequate protection and information, “suffering from intoxication and in some cases death.”

Women in the health care services, on the other hand, have had to endure a different set of hazards: musculo-skeletal disorders, cardiovascular diseases, psychosomatic and mental health disorders, occupational cancer, respiratory diseases neurotic effects and other illnesses caused by chemical agents.

The ILO also answered the question of why it had taken so long for such injuries to be recognised.

“Health hazards to women workers traditionally have been under- estimated because occupational safety and health standards and exposure limits to hazardous substances are based on male populations,” it declared.

The agency called for more gender-based studies and a need to consider the special health problems that can arise among women, such as stress, chronic fatigue and premature aging due to the “excessively long hours of work” in addition to the “predominant share of housework” performed by women.

In such East Asian countries as the Philippines, occupational health researches noticed the regular occurrence of musculo- skeletal disorders among women employed in three industries- garments, handicrafts and ceramics.

Tall work tables caused garment workers “discomfort in the lower back and legs.” Others suffered regular, the result of “squatting or deep bending when packing the products on the floor.”

In the handicrafts sector, women using heavy scissors to cut raw materials often suffered severe pain in the forearm at the end of the day. Women working in ceramics, also suffered pain in the upper arm – the result of the elevated arm positions needed in holding paint brushes.

The ILO noted when employers introduced changes in working conditions it resulted in a reduction of discomfort – and a corresponding increase in workers’ productivity.

Such accounts, however, are few and far between as revealed in another ILO study on the working conditions of export processing zones (EPZs) in the Third World. factories in these zones, where women make up the bulk of the labour force, have many faults, ranging from poor lighting to the lack of adequate sanitation facilities, the study said.

Such problems were most acute in the “older generation” of factories and complaints about excessive heat, noise and dust were common among workers involved in the making of textiles, garments and leather goods, it added.

The study found that required periodic medical examinations were not always carried out nor was protective clothing and equipment and safety information provided automatically to workers.

In the eyes of the IOHA, the way forward to improving occupational health worldwide lay in employers allowing the “free movement of suitably qualified hygiene practitioners and by the wider use of common standards.”