of the International Occupational Hygiene Association
Vol 7(2) October 1999.
Kurt Leichnitz
The Conference was organized by the WHO Regional Office for Europe in Cooperation with the EU- Commission and hosted by the British Government.
Nearly 1000 senior representatives of 51 European Countries, of the USA, of the United Nations, of other organizations (e.g. the European Bank for Reconstructions and Development, of non-governmental organizations - NGOs) and observers attended the Conference. The aim of the Conference was to mark a new commitment to action in partnership for improving the environment and health, including:
All concerned intergovernmental bodies and international organizations are invited to promote a holistic concept of health environment and safety management in enterprises; this may be based on the document "Towards good practice in health, environment and safety management in industrial and other enterprises". IOHA contributed in the development of this document.
IOHA is pleased to announce the addition of two new member organizations.
The 22nd member organization is the Polish Association of Industrial Hygienists (PAIH). PAIH has 242 members and was registered in 1992 as a professional and scientific organization in Poland.
The 23rd member organization is the Mexican Industrial Hygiene Association (AMHI). AMHI was established in 1995 to promote the development of the profession in Mexico and has 120 members.
Information on these two new organizations will soon be available on the IOHA web site and discussions of occupational hygiene activities in Poland and Mexico will appear in a future edition of this Newsletter. IOHA now has 23 member organizations representing occupational hygienists in 21 countries.
Elsewhere in this issue: The remainder of this issue of the newsletter largely stems from AIHCE'99 (the 1999 American Industrial Hygiene Conference and Exposition), held in Toronto, Canada in June. Its theme was "Going Global", which is reflected in the compiled writings. Most readers will not have attended the conference, but will hopefully be able to gain from these, the essence of some of the important messages that were transmitted, and issues that were discussed.
Tom Hethmon
What is the status of the profession internationally? Should there be a minimum, international competency standard for the profession? What do all occupational hygienists need to know as a minimum standard to be an effective practitioner? What is the most important developmental factor for the profession worldwide? These were some of the issues discussed at AIHCE'99 Roundtable #230 "Defining Global Competencies for Occupational Hygiene", organized by the AIHA International Affairs Committee.
While many issues were raised, the predominant theme of the roundtable was the universal need for access to higher education to promote the appropriate development of new practitioners. Maharshi Mehta described the successful efforts to organize an occupational hygiene master's degree program at the Birla Vishvakarma Mahavidyalaya Engineering College in Gujarat, India. (see article in this issue by Mr. Mehta)
Berenice Goelzer (WHO) noted that the profession currently suffers from "malpractice" in regions of the world where the profession is undeveloped as a result of occupational hygiene activities being conducted by untrained individuals who often deliver poor advice and results. This has lead to criticism of the profession and an erosion of credibility. This concern was echoed by Rafael Echavarria (President of AMHI - IOHA's newest member association) who said that despite significant progress in Mexico in the last five years, there was no statutory recognition of the profession and as such, no general or minimum standard of competency that would prevent unqualified individuals from entering the field.
A second issue of note was the need to foster improved working relationships with allied health professionals, many of whom participate in occupational hygiene activities, e.g., physicians, safety professionals, engineers, etc. Both Drs. Grzecik and Czerczak (Poland) noted the lack of professional recognition in Poland and Eastern Europe, and the predominant influence of the physicians in the application of occupational hygiene activities. Brian Davies (President, IOHA) noted its work in developing strong relationships with non-governmental organizations such as WHO and the International Labour Organization (ILO) to promote international development and in developing a universal code of ethics to define minimum standards of professional conduct. It was suggested that a critical mass of competent practitioners was needed to improve professional recognition among governments and populations.
The overall impression offered by the panel is the need for greater international cooperation in the sharing of educational, organizational and technical resources to ensure global parity in the development of the profession.
Berenice I. F. Goelzer
With new technologies, faster transportation and easier communications, trade and investments across borders have become increasingly feasible and more frequent; this has enhanced trade and improved some economies. Investors search in other parts of the world for specific opportunities to produce goods and services at a lower price and/or of better quality, for reasons that include lower costs of living, local availability of raw materials, water, energy sources or land, as well as traditional skills of certain populations.
It has been said that "globalization is a powerful force that can contribute to raising living standards across the world"; this can be true provided that trade policies duly account for the social dimensions involved. Issues such as human rights (men and women), health (including workers' health), environmental protection and sustainable development must be addressed in a proper and timely manner.
The movement called "globalization" may bring people closer, however, it can also move people further apart; it may contribute to more equitable distribution of wealth, but it may also deepen the already wide economic gaps between different societies.
Benefits resulting from globalization include availability of certain goods to people who could not otherwise afford or have access to them, and, jobs for otherwise unemployed persons. Lower wages can, in fact, be acceptable because needs can be quite different in different parts of the world; an appropriate salary for a worker living in a village in a developing country would be impossible for a worker living in New York. The issue of unemployment cannot be overlooked and even work at a lower salary may be the difference between no job and a decent living. However, concerning salaries, it should be emphasized that although lower, they should always be appropriate.
It is also important to recognize and enhance the positive aspects that may result from globalization, through which jobs, progress and know-how can be brought to a developing country. Credit should be given to those large enterprises that make or contribute to local improvements such as provision of health care services, control of vector-borne and other transmissible diseases (e.g., malaria), immunization, and even safe water. Such positive actions are often extended from workers to their families and to surrounding communities thus contributing to better public health. Moreover, particularly in certain developing countries, large companies have, in their staff, the best trained occupational health professionals, thus being in a position to contribute to local training of national professionals.
Another positive aspect is that the technological advances, which have enabled the globalization of the economy, can also be used for the improvement of working conditions and environmental protection worldwide.
Recent advances in information technology, for example, greatly facilitate contacts among concerned persons around the world. This ease of communication is key for raising awareness, for wider dissemination of knowledge and sharing of experiences, as well as for better coordination of local and global actions, thus greatly contributing to the development of capabilities for hazard prevention and control. The democratization of information empowers people and enables them to make informed decisions and to better contribute to the implementation of the required interventions.
The search for extremely cheap labour usually means exploitation of poor populations. There are countries where the established official minimum wage does not meet minimum human needs, and worse, there are companies that do not pay even this already low amount, on the grounds of competitive pressures. Moreover, this search beyond borders often reaches into the weaker groups within the population, mainly poorer women and children who are consistently less well paid and complain less about working conditions, being usually unaware of any associated harmful effects. The key consideration is a decent salary, never sheer exploitation.
It also unfortunately happens that the search is for places where occupational health and environmental legislation is not so strict and enforcement is weak. As standards become more stringent and compliance more costly in certain countries, there is a tendency to transfer hazardous and polluting work processes and operations elsewhere, rather than controlling them. While certain facilities, e.g. nuclear reactors, are shut down in a country, due to high costs and poor safety, large companies in the same field often seek opportunities abroad.
Sometimes the "advantage" is two-fold: extremely cheap production and getting rid of processes (often obsolete) which are harmful to workers' health and to the environment, by sending them to some place where it is possible to get away with poor working conditions and absence of environmental protection. Even in this scenario, some economies will be improved but the harm will be greater than the benefit, particularly for those at the "wrong end".
While the "advantages" of very low wages and lack of protection of workers' health constitute a breach of human rights and ethics, those related to the environment may have yet further implications. Pushing polluting operations away may provide just temporary "relief" from their adverse consequences, because these may eventually rebound through global repercussions on the environment and on health.
Impacts on the environment, energy consumption and other drains on natural resources, although local, may have serious global implications and disastrous outcomes. With the increase in polluting activities, environmental effects have spread even to the stratosphere, e.g., the formation of holes in the ozone layer.
More than ever, at present, actions taken in one place, may affect what happens at the other side of the world, economically or environmentally, all of this having a direct bearing on human health and quality of life. Global warming, climate changes, ozone depletion, loss of biodiversity, land degradation, freshwater depletion, persistent organic pollutants, are a few of the long term global effects of indiscriminate industrialization, no matter where it occurs. Systems and resources on which we all depend for survival may be irreversibly damaged or depleted. Climate alterations appreciably increase harmful occurrences; for example, during the last episode of El Niño, it is estimated that 150 million people were affected by natural disasters.
Although technology transfer has contributed to economic development, it has also brought along increased health and environmental hazards in some countries. It may happen that, along with the technology, there is also the transfer of hazardous processes and chemicals. The use of certain substances of high and known toxicity - e.g., carbon disulfide, vinyl chloride monomer, asbestos, and some pesticides - is declining in industrialized countries and rising in developing countries. The liberalization of international trade may favour this dangerous situation, if adequate precautionary measures are not taken.
A new kind of migration is now occurring, that of work processes, which in fact create situations similar to that of certain migrant workers, with people suddenly exposed to work for which they were not trained for and often do not even understand (hence lack the required skills).
One example is the export/import of equipment and machinery without due consideration for local conditions or for who will use them. Factors which are often overlooked include: maintenance requirements and capabilities, degree of skill required from workers, possibilities for training workers. There is often a complete disregard for ergonomic and anthropometric aspects; for example, I could personally observe, in a developing country where the average height of men was about 1.60 m (or less), agricultural workers driving imported tractors which had been built for persons of average height of 1.75 m.
Another related problem is the transboundary movement of hazardous waste. The OECD nations, with 15% of the world's population, are responsible for 77% of all hazardous industrial waste. The disposal of this waste, particularly when it is highly toxic, has become increasingly difficult and has created serious public health problems. Export of hazardous waste from industrialized to developing countries may be luring for both sides, environmentally on one side, economically on the other.
Unfortunately the health and lives of workers are often considered as expendable supplies and the environmental resources, inexhaustible. Concerning developing countries, a number of different scenarios can be observed. A bad scenario is when there is practically no awareness of the importance or the possibility of controlling recognized hazards, and a worst one is when there is such awareness but decision-makers rank short and medium term economic gains before the protection of health, the environment and the natural resources.
Insufficient Political Will - Reasons why there is not enough political will to promote, support and effectively enforce adequate legislation, or to accept that workers' health and environmental protection issues be incorporated into Trade Agreements (global, regional or bilateral agreements) include:
There are very few comprehensive studies on the cost of occupational diseases and on the cost-effectiveness of occupational health preventive interventions, or on the cost of "not controlling" hazards.
Shortage/Inadequacy of Human Resources - This is true in the field of occupational and environmental health, in two ways:
Interdisciplinary and inter-sectoral understanding and collaboration are essential to foresee and counteract the negative aspects of the globalization of the economy.
Lack or Shortage of Information/Access to Information - Although information technology has undergone tremendous development (including the Internet), the vast available knowledge on hazards and their control is not yet always where it is needed, when it is needed, and presented in a manner that is clearly understandable by those who need it.
This brings into the picture a related but essential topic - which has become even more crucial with globalization, and that is hazard communication, which simply does not exist in many parts of the world. One sad example, related to liberalization of trade: deaths which occur because labels on imported toxic chemicals are not understandable by local people. Adequate and timely hazard communication for both workers and the general public is of paramount importance. In fact, about the only technical barriers to trade (observed through WTO agreements) concerning products that harm workers or the environment have been dictated by consumer pressure (as people refuse to buy such products).
There are places where what happened in terms of workers' health about a century ago, in Europe and the USA, during the industrial revolution, is now occurring. The difference nowadays is that there is, somewhere in the world, enough knowledge to avoid that such deplorable situations are repeated - hence there is a need, and an obligation, to share it worldwide. It is within our power to control the adverse effects of industrialization and globalization, while enhancing the positive aspects. Our profession can and should play a significant role, because much can be achieved through good and ethical occupational hygiene practice; our responsibility goes beyond the workplace and even beyond the present time.
Knowledge and understanding of the harmful implications of uncontrolled industrialization should also imply a duty to act in the sense of raising awareness, creating political will and promoting/supporting action to anticipate and prevent them. Professional associations should advocate against linking economic growth with exploitation of the weak, occupational diseases and environmental degradation.
Sharing knowledge and practical experiences, both positive and negative, can appreciably help to identify the best approaches to recognize and solve occupational and environmental health problems before irreversible harm is done, thus enabling countries everywhere to attain "economic, social and sustainable" development. International collaboration is particularly important as workplaces move across borders and the effects resulting from uncontrolled hazardous agents reach global dimensions.
International agencies should be and are increasingly concerned about the health, environmental, social and ethical dimensions of international trade agreements. A description of the International Agencies WHO, ILO, UNEP and WTO, and of their roles in this respect, is provided in the full version of this article that can be found at the IOHA web site: http://www.bohs.org/ioha
Only joint efforts by all concerned - international agencies, governments, academia, industry, workers, professional associations, consumer groups and communities - can stimulate right decisions for the protection of workers' health and the environment, in terms of standards, legislation and agreements, as well as in terms of national capabilities to effectively implement and enforce them. Such decisions now, are the only way to ensure equity, justice, health, quality of life, and even survival, in the world of today and of tomorrow.
Kim Froats
The International Commission on Occupational Health (ICOH) uses the term "occupational health professional" to encompass occupational health physicians and nurses, occupational hygienists, ergonomists and safety specialists. The purpose of this roundtable (# 211) was to describe the various occupational health professional associations operating in Canada and explore their existing and future inter-relationships. The roundtable provided a first time opportunity for representatives of all the allied occupational health professions (as well as a new environmental accreditation board) to come together at one time to explore ways to improve communication and collaboration and to recognize the changes that are taking place in the inter-relationships between all professions interested in reducing workplace-related morbidity and mortality. It was a fruitful dialogue and various possible future partnerships were raised.
Mieke Lumens
In the first two weeks of April 1997 17 persons from the Central American region participated in an international course in occupational hygiene in Costa Rica; there will be a course based on the same principles, next year. The course was organized by the Pesticide Program of the Universidad Nacional (PPUNA) (Costa Rica) together with the Wageningen Agricultural University (WAU) (the Netherlands). Additional input and funding were obtained from the University of Washington (UW) and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). Some of the objectives of the course were to allow the participants to gain experience in occupational hygiene with emphasis on the evaluation and control of chemical hazards in the workplace, to promote the use of structured methods to evaluate workplaces and working conditions, to learn about control measures and their implementation, and to exchange experience and generate cooperation between institutions.
The course dealt with basic principles of occupational hygiene, which were taught using a practical approach. Theory taught during the lectures and studied materials were discussed at group level and directly put into practice by visiting and surveying workplaces. The companies visited were a banana plantation, a furniture factory and a plant nursery.
The overall evaluation of the course was very positive. The majority of the participants were enthusiastic and confirmed that the objectives of the course were achieved. Suggestions for improving the course were given, among others providing study materials in Spanish, and focussing more on methods that require simple or no measurements at all.
Based on the experiences with this course, a similar one was given in Peru by PPUNA en collaboration with PAHO-Peru and the National Engineer University (UNI) (Peru), which was evaluated by the participants as very useful and valuable. The need for a written Spanish textbook with exercises was emphasized. It is planned that at the end of 1999, beginning 2000 such a textbook will be written and will be validated during a third course programmed for February 2000. More information can be obtained from: Clemens Ruepert
Maharshi Mehta
Reports continued to get published in leading Indian news papers from time to time on glaring cases of occupational diseases in industries, the most recent being perforation of nasal septum of 30 workers of a chemical manufacturing facility in Baroda. A recent Times of India article reads "Banned in the countries of their origin, millions of tonnes of banned drugs, toxic chemicals, waste, cosmetics and radioactive substances are finding their way into India in the absence of stringent laws, say experts". "Between 1990-93 over 1.7 million metric tonnes of toxic waste reached India from the US, 34,312 metric tonnes from Australia and 1,09,380 metric tonnes from Canada". The occupational diseases are likely to increase significantly due to, among other things, rapid industrialization, export of hazardous industries in India and scarcity of much needed trained industrial hygiene professionals.
To address the need of developing industrial hygiene skills, India's first Master in Industrial Hygiene (MIH) program started at Birla Vishvakarma Mahavidyalaya (Engineering College) affiliated with Sardar Patel University, at Vallabh Vidyanagar, Gujarat, from September 3, 1998. A memorandum of understanding has been signed with the Faculty of the Division of Environmental and Industrial Hygiene, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA to offer the program in collaboration with UC. University of Cincinnati has over 45 years of experience offering graduate program in industrial hygiene. The MIH program requires completion of 50 credit of course work and 15 credits of thesis/project work in one and half years or three semesters (one year of course work, six months of thesis/project). Eighteen extremely competent and committed visiting faculty members from India and USA have been teaching seventeen courses.
The program is running on a self-financed basis with the student fee as little as USD 150/semester.
All seven students of the first class of the MIH program presented technical papers in the poster sessions at AIHCE'99. During this visit, the students participated in a three-day workshop at University of Cincinnati, visited the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Cincinnati, Pfizer's manufacturing location in Brooklyn and at New Jersey State Department of Health, Trenton, New Jersey.
Among the challenges being faced in sustaining the program, are (a) placement of the graduating students (b) funding for the program (c) recognition of industrial hygiene as a profession and (b) legislative change that requires application of industrial hygiene. The success of the program is largely due to overwhelming cooperation from professionals, associations and industries around the globe. Should you like to learn more about the program, please contact:
Maharshi Mehta,
or
Dr. Scott Clark
Peter Robson
Roundtable 205 addressed the development of a globally harmonized system for chemical hazard communication. Perspectives were provided by representatives of the US and Canadian governments, the International Labour Organization, Industry and Labour Unions, all of whom were strongly supportive of the initiative. This UN-sponsored program has been underway since 1992 and should be substantially completed by the year 2001.
The overall goal of the program is to develop a new global system by harmonizing the principal existing regulatory systems (UN Transport, European Union, United States, Canada and Australia) for the hazard classification of chemicals and the communication of hazard information to users and workers via container labels and Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS). The scope of the harmonized system will include chemicals intended for consumer use, workplace use, pesticide use and during transportation. Global adoption of a harmonized system would provide uniform, consistent information about chemical products in all countries and would greatly simplify the preparation of labels and MSDS for products that are transported and used in different countries. It would also provide a much- needed model for developing nations that lack regulations for this purpose.
To date, harmonized technical criteria have been developed for classifying the physical and toxicological (except target organ) hazards and the aquatic environmental hazards of substances. Several of the harmonized toxicological criteria are different from those currently used and inclusion of aquatic environmental hazards will be new for most countries. Work is underway to develop rules for classifying the hazards of untested mixtures, the content and format of labels and MSDS and the protection of trade secret ingredients in MSDS.
Adoption of the harmonized system by regulation in individual countries will be non-binding but the trade and other benefits of harmonization should promote widespread adoption. It will also simplify the task of those occupational hygienists who operate in different countries and who need to provide and communicate chemical hazard information to employers and workers.
Kim Diep
In developing countries, to set up a sound health and safety program is a challenging project, even where there are health and safety professionals, due to the lack of funding, enforcement and and typically no management support. At AIHCE'99 Roundtable 221, Dr Hernan Ulloa shared his occupational physician experiences in Colombia. Here, 90% of industry is made of companies of 50 employees or less. With almost no existing enforcement and the current lack of health and safety professionals, quality worker's health and safety, as well as their "right to know", seem to be only an idea.
The Toronto Workers' Health and Safety Legal Clinic, according to its Dan Ublansky, has grappled with the most effective means of promoting change; instead of approaching management of small businesses for support, the staff of the clinic has applied the Community Mobilization approach to reach the labour force and young workers through its community outreach program. This approach to the promotion of health and safety is one of many local solutions to health and safety issues in small workplaces presented by Professor Joan M. Eakin of the University of Toronto.
The approach requires private funding; thus it can be a private-public mix and locally promoted in small municipalities. It is based on a community development model such as the Safe Communities Foundation Program . Also, the Consultive-Dialogue approach used in Denmark, was compared with the Safety Representative approach used in Sweden. But, as always, regulatory initiatives and their enforcement make the job immensely more practicable. Also, hazard awareness and information resources do need to be enhanced.
Claudio Ramirez
The Pan American Center for Sanitary Engineering and Environmental Sciences (CEPIS/PAHO), regional sanitary bureau of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO/WHO), is pleased to inform the IOHA Newsletter readers that it has created, since March of this year, a new e-mail discussion list in Spanish called "Red sobre la Salud de los Trabajadores en Latinoamérica y el Caribe" (RST- LAC). This list deals with workers' (occupational and environmental) health and safety issues in the Americas, with particular focus on Latin America and the Caribbean. RST-LAC is sponsored by PAHO, managed by the Work & Health Institute (ISAT) in Peru, and hosted by DUKE University 's Medical Center (North Carolina, USA). Since the beginning of our landmark project's activities, more than 265 members from 28 countries have joined our membership list. Interested individuals or organizations are welcomed to join for free by visiting our website, where more information is made available to them. Among our future projects, we plan to create 'virtual conferences' on specific topics (which are currently under discussion) and we are also looking forward to creating 'Questions and Answers' (Q&A) sessions through a close partnership with other lists in English such as SAFETY, HSC, and OEM-L, to name a few. For further information or to see parallel work by CEPIS/PAHO on this issue, feel free to visit our website on Workers' Health and do not hesitate to get in touch with me.
Claudio Ramirez
Website on Workers' Health:http://www.cepis.org.pe/enwww/saluocup/salud.html
List RST-LAC:http://www.cepis.org.pe/enwww/saluocup/rst-lac/home.html
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