Occupational health in Brazil

Abstract

Brazil is a recently industrialised country with marked contrasts in social and economic development. The availability of public/private services in its different regions also varies. Health indicators follow these trends. Occupational health is a vast new field, as in other developing countries. Occupational medicine is a required subject in graduation courses for physicians. Specialisation courses for university graduated professionals have more than 700 hours of lectures and train occupational health physicians, safety engineers and nursing staff. At the technical level, there are courses with up to 1300 hours for the training of safety inspectors. Until 1986 about 19,000 occupational health physicians, 18,000 safety engineers and 51,000 safety inspectors had been officially registered. Although in its infancy, postgraduation has attracted professionals at university level, through residence programmes as well as masters and doctors degrees, whereby at least a hundred good-quality research studies have been produced so far. Occupational health activities are controlled by law. Undertakings with higher risks and larger number of employees are required to hire specialised technical staff. In 1995 the Ministry of Labour demanded programmes of medical control of occupational health (PCMSO) for every worker as well as a programme of prevention of environmental hazards (PPRA). This was considered as a positive measure for the improvement of working conditions and health at work. Physicians specialising in occupational medicine are the professionals more often hired by the enterprises. Reference centres (CRSTs) for workers' health are connected to the State or City Health Secretariat primary health care units. They exist in more populated areas and are accepted by workers as the best way to accomplish the diagnosis of occupational diseases. There is important participation by the trade unions in the management of these reference centres. For 30 years now employers organisations have also kept specialised services for safety and occupational health. Although they are better equipped they are less well used by the workers than the CRSTs. At the federal level, activities concerned with occupational health are connected to three ministries: Labour, Health and Social Security. The Ministry of Labour enacts legislation on hygiene, safety and occupational medicine, performs inspections through its regional units and runs a number of research projects. The Ministry of Health provides medical care for workers injured or affected by occupational diseases and also has surveillance programmes for certain occupational diseases. The Ministry of Social Security provides rehabilitation and compensation for registered workers. In spite of a decrease in the number of accidents at work during the past 25 years, working conditions have not improved. Changes in the laws of social security in the 1970s discouraged registration and reporting of occupational injuries and diseases. In consequence death rates due to accidents increased. With ...

Occupational health crossing borders part 2: Comparison of 18 occupational health systems across the globe

“…The information summarized herein was provided by the presenters and participants during the course. Wherever possible, the information was supplemented by information from recent literature and reviewed by an expert [Rasmussen et al, 1991;Szantho Pongracz and Morales Freire, 1994;Harrington and Aw, 1996;Isah et al, 1996;Bedrikow et al, 1997;Contreras and Dummer, 1997;Joyce, 1997;He, 1998;Lehnert and Wrbitzky, 1998;Libert and Yamada, 1998;Joshi, 1999;Laskar et al, 1999;Macdonald et al, 2000;Vallebuona Stagno, 2001;Ofili et al, 2003;Ejilemele and Ojule, 2004;Danishevski et al, 2006;De Valk et al, 2006;Kamuzora, 2006;Kauppinen et al, 2006;Womack, 2008;Center for Disease Control, 2009;Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, 2009;Occupational Safety Health Agency, 2009;United States Department of Labor, 2009].…”

“…Little has been published about the different OHS standards in countries at different levels of industrialization. Most previous publications, dating from the late 1990s, focused on industrialized countries and countries in transition [Langard and Wannag, 1995;Harrington and Aw, 1996;Bedrikow et al, 1997;Cikrt et al, 1997;Contreras and Dummer, 1997;de la Hoz et al, 1997;Ribak et al, 1997;Wolf et al, 1997;He, 1998;Koh and Jeyaratnam, 1998;Lehnert and Wrbitzky, 1998;Libert and Yamada, 1998;Overgaard-Hansen, 1998;Phoon, 1998;Gestal-Otero et al, 1999;Guo et al, 1999;Joshi, 1999;Saric, 1999;Ahlborg, 2000;Werner, 2000;Hämäläinen et al, 2001]. Hämäläinen et al [2006] recently estimated the incidence of occupational accidents across the world.…”

The relationship between effective personality and occupational health of lecturers: An empirical assessment in vietnam

“…This means creating adaptability of the work for human beings and each person at the workplace” [ 40 ]. However, discrepancies and gaps in understanding occupational health exist, particularly in developing countries [ 41 ]. The concept of occupational health aims to protect workers from occupational dangers and harms [ 42 ], but in reality, the occupational health principles omit the workers that are not on the list of protected occupations [ 43 ].…”

Economic and Health Effects of Occupational Hazards in Latin America and the Caribbean

“…Despite the fact that some countries have made occupational medicine a required subject in graduate courses for physicians, and that specialized courses train occupational health physicians, safety engineers and nurses (Bedrikow et al, 1997), OSH in Latin America and the Caribbean is still in its infancy and there are fewer experts available, less safety equipment, less monitoring equipment, fewer inspectors and less enforcement than in developed nations (Delclos et al, 1999). In addition, OSH research is probably underfunded.…”