This article draws on current understandings of workers' health in Brazil that emerged concomitantly with advances in the field of public health. It describes the institutional trajectory of the field of workers' health within the Unified Health System (SUS), emphasizing the challenges faced in developing actions in the sphere of workers' health surveillance. It synthesizes the often tortuous path taken over the last 30 years between multiprofessional training processes, coordination between different levels of the SUS, interinstitutional support, especially from public universities, and interaction with participatory processes. It provides an overview of progress and challenges in the face of continuous changes in working conditions and work organization and the limited effectiveness of government policies designed to address occupational health risks. Finally, it suggest that progress has come out of the intertwining of social and academic movements, with the opening up of institutional spaces that transform the SUS, reviving the underlying principles of participation and health promotion in broad vision of state policy.

This paper is part of a broader discussion on the need for more in-depth

The article reports the environmental accident caused by aerial pesticide spraying that reached the urban space of Lucas do Rio Verde-MT, in March 2006. It was characterized as a "major rural accident" of environmental and occupational aspects whose seriousness and extension crossed the agriculturally productive unit boundaries causing sanitary, social and environmental impact. This case study had as its objective the understanding of the social-technical scene of the accident and the monitoring process in health-environment in a research-action dynamic. The information was collected through interviews, documents and daily observation reports. It also referred to accidents, multidisciplinary and participatory analyses with the participation of local institutions of health, agriculture and environment, political and union leaderships, ranchers and farmers, the public prosecutor's office, journalists and the University. The study shows that the pesticide "use and abuse" monitoring actions have been extended to [a] "movement for the sustainable development of the region" supported by the participative monitoring and the fight for democracy and social justice in the search of a sustainable agriculture and/or environment.

The offshore oil industry is characterized by complex systems in relation to technology and organization of work. Working conditions are hazardous, resulting in accidents and even occasional full-scale catastrophes. This article is the result of a study on work-related accidents in the offshore platforms in the Campos Basin, Rio de Janeiro State. The primary objective was to provide technical back-up for both workers' representative organizations and public authorities. As a methodology, we attempt to go beyond the immediate causes of accidents and emphasize underlying causes related to organizational and managerial aspects. The sources were used in such a way as to permit classification in relation to the type of incident, technological system, operation, and immediate and underlying causes. The results show the aggravation of safety conditions and the immediate need for public authorities and the offshore oil industry in Brazil to change the methods used to investigate accidents in order to identify the main causes in the organizational and managerial structure of companies.

Governança em saúde e ambiente para o desenvolvimento sustentável

Este texto apresenta uma discussão contextualizada das ações de Vigilância em Saúde do Trabalhador (VST), na qualidade de uma práxis social transdisciplinar em que distintos atores se organizam em um processo heterodoxo e construtivista. Destaca-se o momento histórico institucional vivido pelo Brasil nas últimas décadas e a constituição de redes de VST a partir de objetos priorizados em um campo de contradições entre a saúde e a produção como valores sociais.

Abstract

Alternativas e processos de vigilância em saúde do trabalhador relacionados à exposição ao benzeno no BrasilBenzene exposures in Brazil: alternatives and processes of worker health surveillance Abstract The article reports the experience of the following up of the Benzene Agreement which is contextualized as a practice of surveillance in the field of Worker's Health. It brings into focus the international facet of that experience as well as the twenty years history of the reduction in the use of benzene in Brazil. The article points at four distinct moments of that history. Firstly, it describes the moment in which the technical bases were built and the several crucial alliances were defined. Then, the shaping of the Agreement is described. This process is characterized by conceptual developments, such as the restriction in the use of benzene and the setting up of means of surveillance. Finally, the article relates the results of the process of surveillance, in particular the challenges faced and the proposals to be put into practice in the future. The Brazilian model of surveillance in the field of Worker's Health is debated starting from the understanding of the actions related to the use of benzene and the strengthening of its strategical and structured elements.