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Commission Internationale dela Santé au Travail – CIST

NEWSLETTERInternational Commission onOccupational Health – ICOH

Volume 6, Number 3 December 2008

Message from the PresidentMessage from thePresident 1

From the Editor 3

European Strategy forPromoting Health andSafety at Work 4

Unemployment, job inse-curity and health – Euro-pean and global develop-ment and how to updatethe research agenda 6

New Members 8

Asian Association ofOccupational HealthAAOH News 9

12th Conference onOccupational Health:Province of Buenos AiresOccupational HealthSociety, Argentina 10

ICOH and BOHSin East Africa 11

Organizing successfullythe third InternationalOccupational and Envi-ronmental HealthConference in Hanoi 11

South Africa and ICOHinvite you 12

Obituary: Dr. BernardoBedrikow (Brazil) 13

Résumé en français 14

Dear ICOH Members,

This is the last time I communicatethrough this Newsletter as ICOH Presi-dent and my feelings are mixed. I feelmuch insufficiency due to not havingbeen able to serve the Association asmaximally as I wished, but on the otherhand, I am proud and happy that mysuccessor will step up to lead an organi-zation which is vital, increasingly young-er, and, while looking curiously to thefuture also takes good care of its historyand heritage. ICOH has a leading posi-tion on the global occupational healthscene and has strong alliances with otherinternational organizations, both inter-governmental and non-governmental.

Most of the period of 2003–2008has been a time of impressive develop-ment in work life, and of a continuousgrowth in living standards and well-be-ing almost throughout the world. Butduring the recent weeks, perspectives havetaken a totally different track. ICOH’svitality, energy and wisdom will be chal-lenged not only by the rapid changes inwork life, but also by the sudden globaleconomic crisis, that appeared promptlyand is spreading like a pandemic. QueenElisabeth II of the United Kingdom aptlyinterpreted the feelings of most of us, byasking whether it would not have beenpossible to anticipate this situation: ‘Whydid nobody notice it?’ The crisis indeed isan indication of the severe inability of theworld economy research community topredict changes and identify the weak-nesses of the global economy governancesystem. But even more, the roots of thecrisis are in the lack of business ethicsamong the key players of global econo-

mies. Due to these weaknesses, the wholeworld will now suffer from a recessionfor 2 to 10 years, depending on the vari-ous scenarios.

Unfortunately, it is ultimately theworking people of the world, not due toany cause of their own, who have to bearthe consequences. It means harder workfor everyone and less resources forhealth, environment and social protec-tion. Occupational health is also at a riskof suffering from cutbacks. This is par-ticularly unfortunate, as the need for oc-cupational health is likely to grow, as timesget harder. We should remind decision-makers, business leaders and even tradeunions of the evidence obtained duringthe last global recession 15 years ago,which showed that efficient social pro-tection programmes and services provid-ed effective buffers against the most neg-ative impacts of the economic crisis andaccelerated quick recovery by enabling,for example, the effective mobilization ofworking people back to the labour mar-

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ICOH NewsletterPublished by theInternational Commission onOccupational Health

Editorial BoardSuvi [email protected]

Sergio Iavicoli,[email protected]

René [email protected]

Franklin [email protected]

Louis [email protected]

Ken [email protected]

EditorSuvi Lehtinen

LayoutTuula Solasaari-Pekki

The electronic version of the ICOHNewsletter on the Internet can be ac-cessed at the following address:www.icohweb.org/newsletter

The responsibility for opinions ex-pressed in signed articles, studies andother contributions rests solely withtheir authors, and publication does notconstitute an endorsement by the Inter-national Commission on OccupationalHealth of the opinions expressed inthem.

© International Commission onOccupational Health, 2008

ISSN 1459-6792 (Printed publication)

ISSN 1795-0260 (On-line publication)

NEWSLETTERVolume 6, Number 3

December 2008

International Commission on Occupa-tional Health – ICOH

Commission Internationale de laSanté au Travail – CIST

ket when the post-crisis recovery started.Slowing growth also presents the oppor-tunity to make improvements in the ba-sic safety and health structures of the workenvironment and in workers’ health, asproduction pressure decreases. There isalso more time for competence upgrad-ing, and training and education of per-sonnel, including training in safety andhealth. This is also wise preparation forfuture recovery. We should encouragedecision-makers to refrain from short-sighted dismantling and downsizing ofresearch programmes and occupationalhealth service programmes, as their needdoes not disappear in a recession.

As an association, we have focusedon two main categories of priorities: thedevelopment of substantive activities, andthe development of ICOH as an associa-tion. The former group of priorities hascovered, for example, the development ofscientific committee activities, the devel-opment of occupational health servicesand particularly basic occupationalhealth services, the effectivizing of inter-nal and external information activities,including the revitalization of the News-letter, and continuous, active developmentof the ICOH website.

Strengthening ethical dimensionand its implementation in ICOH, andcollecting and cultivating ICOH historyand heritage, particularly in connectionwith ICOH Centennial events, has beenmost rewarding. The Scientific Commit-tees have been active and productive dur-ing both the past two tenures, and haveorganized approximately 80–100 Scien-tific Symposia or Conferences during thistime. The reorganization and merging ofthree Committees, the reorientation ofsome Committees and the establishmentof two new Committees have taken place,to ensure that the content of ICOH scien-tific activities better correspond to theneeds of modern work life. The hundredthanniversary of ICOH in 2006 was a highpoint for the Association. It resulted inthe extremely successful Milan Congressand in the launching of the CentennialDeclaration of the International Commis-sion on Occupational Health.

The second group of priorities hasincluded the strengthening of ICOH asAssociation through the renewal of regu-lations and production or updating of allthe key guidelines needed for ICOH coreactivities, increasing membership, anddeveloping membership services and theactivities of national secretaries. Strength-ening links and collaboration with the

International Inter-Governmental Or-ganizations and with our NGO-Allies,IEA, IOHA and ISSA has been one of themost prominent priorities. The Memo-randa of Understanding between NGO-Allies and ICOH have provided a moresolid basis to our collaboration.

The Officers, Scientific Committees,National Secretaries and our Committees,Task Groups and Working Groups includ-ing the Networks, have been active andprovided valuable service to ICOH. Thetwo Boards of the two tenures have alsobeen supportive to Officers, and eithercollectively or through individuals’ capac-ities contributed strongly to both strate-gic leadership and strategy implementa-tion. By providing their trust to the Of-ficers and Board and by participating indozens of Scientific Committee activitiesand ICOH Congresses, ICOH membershave kept the organization alive and dy-namic.

Let me personally most sincerelythank my dear colleagues, the ICOH Of-ficers, for all their contributions and sup-port; the Board, both collectively andeach member individually; the Chairs andSecretaries of the Scientific Committees,and the National Secretaries for a mostinteresting and stimulating two tenureswithin the framework of ICOH. It hasbeen a privilege to work with all of you.On behalf of the whole Leadership ofICOH, Officers and the Board I also wishto thank the ICOH members for theirsupport and participation in all the activ-ities of ICOH.

Much has been achieved, but muchremains to be done. The next leadershipfaces incredible challenges in today’s tur-bulent world. The election of Officers andthe Board is on the way, and the resultswill be available in Cape Town. ICOHdeserves a wise, professionally and ethi-cally strong leadership, capable of navi-gating the Association through what islikely to be the rocky waters of the nextfew years. May I wish ICOH and its Of-ficers, Board and members the utmostsuccess in your great mission for im-proved occupational health for all theworking people of the world.

Professor Jorma Rantanen MD, PHDPresident of ICOH

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Contents of this issue

State-of-the-Art Report

The introductory article in this issue of ICOH Newsletter dealswith one of the most topical current issues of our everyday life –unemployment, job insecurity and health. This article has beenprepared by a group of well-known and prominent scientists inthe field. It is also strongly involved in the development of theactivities of ICOH Scientific Committees.

Elections

The elections of ICOH Officers and Board Members are underway. The ballots have been sent to all members in good stand-ing. The ballots need to reach the Secretariat by 22 February2009.

Cape Town 2009 Congress

We are now heading for the Cape Town 2009 Congress. I wouldlike to encourage all members to get acquainted with the highlyinteresting scientific programme of the Congress, and registerfor the event.

Contributions from the SCs

In this issue, the number of contributions from the ScientificCommittees is again rich. Thank you so much for your contri-butions!

We would also appreciate your ideas for future ICOHNewsletters in 2009. It would be good if we could convey a mes-sage with ideas for development to the next Editorial Board of

the Newsletter. If you have any thoughts on topics of occupa-tional health and safety that might be of interest to experts inother countries, please let us know. We would then try to find thebest experts to write and share information on these topics. Alsoother ideas to further develop the exchange of information toICOH members are welcome.

Changes of addressesTo ensure that you receive the Newsletters in time, please checkthat you have paid your membership fee and informed the ICOHSecretariat ([email protected] or [email protected]) ofpossible changes to your address.

Next issueI have had the privilege to work with you all during the past sixyears. I appreciate that time very much, it has been an educa-tional period in my work life. The new President of ICOH willdecide in due course how the information activities of ICOH willbe arranged in the next term. The next issue of the ICOH News-letter will be out at the end of April 2009 if the Newsletter sched-ule will be kept as it has been during the past years. As we do notknow about the arrangements concerning the editing of the ICOHNewsletter, I would like to ask you to send your contributions [email protected]. I will then forward the material to the per-son in charge.

Special thanks also go to members of the Editorial Boardwho have actively supported the publishing of the Newsletter.

Thank you so much and best wishes for the Season!

Suvi LehtinenEditor

From the Editor

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European Strategy for PromotingHealth and Safety at Work

Jukka Takala, Director, European Agency for Safety and Health at Work

Background and target

While legal measures, directives, nationallaws and regulations are vital, these donot work alone. There is a need to have arange of measures – often called as a tool-box – that will be built around the back-bone of legal measures.1 These includesocial dialogue, good practices, awarenessraising, services and research, corporatesocial responsibility, economic incentivesand mainstreaming.

At EU-level, this holistic approachtowards occupational safety and health(OSH) has been adopted in the form ofCommunity Strategies on Health andSafety at Work. The latest CommunityStrategy 2007–2012 has been prepared bythe European Commission and endorsedby the European Council Resolution, theEuropean Parliament Resolution, as wellas by the Resolution of the European Sen-ior Labour Inspectors’ Committee.

The current Community Strategyaims to achieve a 25% cut in accidents atwork across the EU by 2012. There is aspecific reference to have a uniform re-duction also in occupational illnesses,while, due to lack of a proper referencepoint, a quantified target was so far notpossible. To achieve these goals the strat-egy calls for action by players at all levels– European, national, local and work-places.

Previous European Strategy empha-sized already prevention policies, partner-ships, and management systems. The Lis-bon strategy acknowledged the need forquality and productivity at work and rec-ognized that poor occupational safety andhealth could lead to absenteeism and/orpermanent occupational disability thatentail harmful human and economic con-sequences. The fatal accident rate fell 17%in 2002–2006 and days lost due to acci-dents went down.

Meanwhile the 4th European surveyon working conditions stated that 28%

of workers in Europe say that they sufferfrom non-accidental health problemswhich are or may be caused by their cur-rent or previous job. Moreover, 35% ofworkers on average feel that their job putstheir health at risk. The burden is not,however, equally distributed: somegroups are much more exposed: youngworkers, workers in insecure jobs, mi-grant workers and those working in smalland medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), inaddition to the differences between saferand more hazardous sectors, such as con-struction, agriculture, fishing, transport,health care and social services. ILO re-ports 167,000 fatal work-related out-comes, out of which 7,400 caused by acci-dents and the rest by work-related dis-eases in the EU27 in 2003 2.

Workplace and workforcechanges

Employment patterns are changing: morepart-time work, more sub-contracting,self-employed, temporary agency work,telework… Also the sectoral structuresare changing. Most people in Europe

work in the service sector rather than pri-mary production and manufacturing,which in turn mean different types of ex-posures than in the past: new and emerg-ing risks, new work patterns and organi-zation, new materials, chemicals andproducts, such as nanoparticles. Similar-ly, the workforce has undergone changes:more women, more ageing workers, moremigrant workers.

Key measures to achieve theEuropean objectives

The following list identifies the most im-portant measures to be taken.

• Guarantee the proper implementa-tion of EU legislation

• Support SMEs in the implementationof the legislation in force

• Adapt the legal framework to chang-es in the workplace and simplify it,particularly in view of SMEs

• Promote the development and imple-mentation of national strategies3

• Encourage changes in the behaviourof workers and encourage their em-ployers to adopt health-focused ap-proaches

• Finalize the methods for identifyingand evaluating new potential risks

• Improve the tracking of progress• Promote health and safety at inter-

national level.A key concept and fundamental pil-

lar for reaching the objectives of thisCommunity Strategy is the developmentand implementation of coherent nation-al strategies in the EU Member States. Thesuccess of the Community Strategy de-pends on the adoption of such coherentnational strategies and these should in-clude:• Quantitative objectives for reduction

of accidents and illnesses• Target sectors and companies with

worst track record

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• Focus on the most common risks• Focus on the most vulnerable work-

ers• Detailed evaluation of national situa-

tion (profile)• Consultation of all interested parties,

including the social partners.It has been widely recognized that

new strategies are emphasizing informa-tion-driven measures as compared topurely regulatory measures. This shifttowards new strategies is a global one.The ILO adopted in 2006 its PromotionalFramework for Occupational Safety andHealth; the WHO embraced a Global Planof Action Plan on Workers’ Health 2008–2017 4. Also, many countries outside theEU have developed occupational safetyand health strategies to provide a clearerfocus on the overall direction and to setthe OSH priorities in their countries.

An essential step in the developmentof a national OSH strategy and pro-gramme is the preparation of a nationalOSH profile. Today, several countries havealready developed such profiles, whichprovide an inventory of all the tools andresources available in the country to im-plement and manage OSH.

In the present international financeand economic crisis, there is a high riskthat those that become unemployed arestaying long periods out of work life. Thisin turn pushes many into long-term ab-sence from work, permanent disability or

premature retirement. A major part ofthe potential workforce is affected, up to25% in many countries. For example inFinland, the average retirement age is 57years (median retirement age at 59) whichmeans 8 years short of the earlier expect-ed retirement age of 65. This missing con-tribution of 8 years of an expected 40years of work life is already 20%. On topof that it is a known fact that companiesthat have a proper OSH managementsystem can keep the every day absentee-ism rate much below the average 5%.

The European Agency for Safetyand Health at Work has an important rolein implementing the new European Strat-egy. As emphasized in the ILO Conven-tion No. 187, the awareness raising, cam-paigning, and good practices have a ma-jor and increasing role to play in puttingcorrect policies into practice. The Euro-pean Risk Observatory – established bythe earlier strategy – has now a biggerrole to look into new and emerging risks,to have better evidence of existing risksand exposures, and to foresee key prob-lems in future. One just cannot wait thatthe consequences will appear 30 years lat-er if exposures can be reduced now. Fur-thermore, encouraging research collabo-ration and setting European research pri-orities will reduce duplication in MemberStates and provide better results for set-ting priorities.

1 EU-OSHA pages on OSH Strategies: http://osha.europa.eu/en/organisations/osh_strategies

2 ILO Report “Beyond Deaths and Injuries”, 2008, and ILO Report “Decent Work– Safe Work”, 2005, and Accident and Disease Information: www.ilo.org/safework

3 National European Strategy documents: http://osha.europa.eu/en/organisations/osh_strategies/list_eu_strategies#EU%20Member%20State%20strategies%20and%20programmes

4 International organisations’ strategies: http://osha.europa.eu/en/organisations/osh_strategies/1st_eu_strategies#International%20organisations%20strategies

What can ICOH andICOH members do

1. Encourage your government to rati-fy the ILO Convention No.187, tofollow the WHO Resolution, and takeaction to set up a national strategy, anational programme and a nationalprofile

2. Cooperate with national authoritiessuch as the labour inspection

3. Provide expertise in drafting/propos-ing elements and setting national pri-orities, evidenced by research andfacts, look at good practices in othercountries

4. Provide expertise to set up and en-hance the coverage of occupationalhealth services

5. Promote contacts and dialogue be-tween workers, employers, govern-ments and professional organiza-tions, such as ICOH and national as-sociations

6. Follow ICOH ethical guidelines.We need to have harmonized safety

and health values and levels. It is just notenough to have an interchangeable Euro-coin in the pocket. Social Europe mustinclude equal treatment of its workers andtheir families, independently of the size,sector or location of their workplace, gen-der, nationality, language or age.

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1. Development of the SCUnemployment, JobInsecurity and Health (SCUJIH) research agenda

The roots of the unemployment researchdate back to the early 1930s, but it wasnot until the 1980s as the research intounemployment and health developed intoa major field of research bringing forthhigh-level research in many Western coun-tries. The development of the field wasthen also politically motivated: there wasa general concern of unemployment as asocial problem, and a keen interest in theimpact of unemployment on health. Thisconcern was also supported by a networkof the WHO Regional Office for Europeaddressing social inequity and health,promoting international co-operation.The traditional research into links be-tween unemployment and health had itsfocus on the health effects of job loss andlong-term unemployment and later alsoon the positive impact of various inter-ventions to limit the negative health ef-fects. A policy-relevant point often madewas whether and how an integration ofthe experience from these interventionscould be used in the development of oc-cupational health (e.g. to integrate occu-pational health services in enterprise re-structuring; to monitor the health of un-employed people through regular healthchecks). Another policy concern waswhether the interventions might reducethe unemployment spells and be, thus,socially cost-effective. Successful inter-ventions would also combat against so-cial exclusion reducing the hysteresis ef-fect of unemployment, i.e. reducing the

psychosocial and social barriers to re-employment.

The increased interest in unemploy-ment research, changing nature of worklife and the increase of psychosocial stres-sors and morbidity led to the establish-ment of two new Scientific Committeesof ICOH in the 1990s to address thesenew challenges of occupational health: theSC Work Organisation and PsychosocialFactors and the SC Unemployment andHealth (in 2006 renamed as SC Unem-ployment, Job Insecurity and Health). Theidea of the creation of the SC Unemploy-ment, Job Insecurity and Health was tobridge the areas of psychological, socio-logical and socio-medical unemploymentresearch and integrate this research withconsiderations of social policy and hu-man resources management, which thenwere mainly separated from the field ofoccupational health.

When Jean Bertran and BjorgulfClaussen invited unemployment re-searchers from countries all over theworld to join ICOH in 1998 and to formthe ICOH Working Group on Unem-ployment and Health, they proposed tobring unemployment research closer tothe research into employment. The un-derlying assumptions were that the in-creased precariousness of the work andneed for restructuring lead to a situationwhere occupational transitions, includ-ing unemployment become more andmore common; that transitions are po-tentially stressful for unemployed per-sons and those facing job insecurity andthat the increased requirement to adaptshould also be facilitated by the occupa-tional health service system. This is asocial concern relevant both for jobseek-

ers, employees and for employers tomaintain the workforce healthy and em-ployable. In the course of the past tenyears, the following aspects were identi-fied and discussed in various conferenc-es of the SC: health situation of the un-employed, the repercussions of the pre-cariousness of work on the health of theworkforce, the new demands on the or-ganizations in regard to corporate socialresponsibility in the process of restruc-turing, and preferably closer links be-tween labour market and social policy,as well as occupational health policy.

In the course of the past ten years,the SC has increased focus on the qualityof re-employment and job insecurity. Ithas become obvious that the simple di-chotomy of employment vs. unem-ployment is inadequate in the globalizedpost-modern labour markets. The changeof the labour markets with increasing flex-ibility and a trend towards more precari-ous forms of employment lead to a grow-ing discrepancy between the core em-ployees and those being temporarilyemployed on a short-term or fixed-termbasis. The relationship of job insecurityand health is culturally conditioned, butthere is enough evidence for stating thatit is not good for health. There are alsoother forms of employment that woulddeserve increased interest; these include,for instance, hidden unemployment andunderemployment, with usually a directimpact on income and subsistence andan indirect health risk.

2. Present state of affairsof the SC

At present, the heydays of the research

Unemployment, job insecurity and health –European and global development and how toupdate the research agenda

Thomas Kieselbach, University of Bremen, Institute for Psychology of Work, Unemployment andHealth (IPG), Germany – Chairperson of the SC Unemployment, Job Insecurity and Health

Simo Mannila, National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health (STAKES),Finland – Secretary of the SC Unemployment, Job Insecurity and Health

Jukka Vuori, Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Finland

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into unemployment and health are in thepast in Europe, as well as in other West-ern countries. Some of the Central Euro-pean countries suffer from slow econom-ic growth and persistent unemployment,but in all Western countries the focusshifted in the 1990s from unemploymentto more differentiated labour market pre-cariousness and to the right of all per-sons to participate in the labour marketand work during various phases of thelife course, i.e. the focus shifted from un-employment to employment. At the sametime the concern for the links betweenunemployment, job insecurity and healthseems to have diminished and been re-placed by purely economic concerns. It isunclear how the starting recession causedby the financial crisis will influence thescientific and socio-political agenda invarious countries. According to somevery preliminary estimates, the crisis willmake world-wide approximately 20 mil-lion people redundant, which highlightsthe continuous importance of the focusof the SC Unemployment, Job Insecurityand Health.

The necessity to adapt to the glo-balization of the market, goods and serv-ices has stimulated the restructuring ofcompanies and organizations in all coun-tries, sectors and branches. Economic re-structuring has already in many waystransformed the nature of jobs and workand has increased the need for flexibilityof the workforce. The increasing amountof transitions during the life course - intoand out-of work, between jobs - maychallenge the well-being, motivation andhealth of individuals. In compliance withthe idea of lifelong learning, people nowhave to update their education and voca-tional skills throughout their work careerin order to maintain their status in thelabour market. The development chang-es also the ways in which generations ofyoung people make their transition fromschool to work. Their work careers areoften characterized by discontinuity, andthey may find themselves overeducatedand under-employed. Youth unemploy-ment is recognized as one of the key risksof social exclusion and sometimes exac-erbated by e.g. discrimination and ethnicsegregation. Employees who try to returnto work after longer absence from workor disabled persons willing to take upworking, too, have difficulties in reinte-grating themselves into work. Seniorworkers have to face challenging workchanges as they try to keep up with thenew developments and stay healthy and

motivated before their final work transi-tion to retirement. This means that thereis an increasing need of work ability pro-grammes, based on human resourcesmanagement and interventions of occu-pational health. Despite increasing liter-ature on work transitions, well-being andhealth, there are many open questions,and there is very little research on cop-ing in work transitions and on its conse-quences for well-being and health, worklife participation and productivity in thelong run. Research needs to identify themediation processes that produce differ-ent health outcomes.

This brings growing challenges forindividuals, organizations including en-terprises and for societies. How individ-uals respond to increasing work transi-tions and flexibility and how this affectsindividual well-being and health, willgreatly depend both on individual re-sources for coping with the transitionsand on social resources for all kinds ofsupport, in other words resources ac-cessed through networks, organizationalpractices and public policies. It has beenshown, for example, that preparednessfor work life transitions and mentalhealth can be improved with resource-building interventions in various settings.Preparedness and effective coping may beseen as motivators in a process wherebyindividuals adjust to work environment,make plans and set goals for their futureand evaluate their possibilities and com-petencies in achieving these goals. Thechallenge of societies is to develop worklife in such directions that employees areprovided security in the changing worklife and to promote the development andimplementation of knowledge to increaseindividual coping resources and resourc-es for support and design correspondingpolicies.

3. New challenges

Empirical evidence shows that a consid-erable number of dismissed people dis-play difficulties to adapt to the new situ-ation without any external support, andthis had led, for instance, into the devel-opment of the concept of a “social con-voy” in occupational transitions. Thismeans a scheme to accompany people inthe process of transition from employ-ment to out-of-work, training schemesor job search, and finally re-entering em-ployment. This process involves a newinteraction between human resourcesmanagement and occupational health as

well as between public and private em-ployment services and psychosocialinterventions and implies an extension ofthe organizational responsibility for dis-missals beyond the actual employment(active labour market policy; “active so-cial plans”). The new role of occupation-al health in this framework would be themonitoring of the health of persons intransition including out-of-work as wellas those at risk of unemployment.

The overarching concept for such anew balance between individual and so-cial responsibility can be seen in the em-ployability policies compensating for thereduced security of the workplace (due toincreased flexibility and precariousness)with a greater security of employability.In the life course perspective this meansthat job careers are constituted in a dif-ferent way from a traditional model: con-tinuity and security is provided for bynew means, and there are new psychoso-cial risks which one must be able to copewith. This should mean a better individ-ual adaptation in the labour market witha lifelong investment in acquiring request-ed qualifications and competencies on theone hand and a greater openness of thevarious institutions accompanying the lifecourse which produce these skills(schools, education and training, in-jobbased training, rehabilitation) on the oth-er hand. In this process the human re-sources management and occupationalhealth face new tasks in regard to thechanging nature of employment. Equityshould play a crucial role: how do we at-tain flexicurity and at which cost? Thereshould be strong policies to address thedifferences between secure vs. insecureemployment, victims-of-layoffs vs. sur-vivors-of-layoffs, and the obvious dis-crepancy between occupational healthand rehabilitation services available inmajor enterprises vs. small and medium-sized enterprises.

In order to obtain and secure a bet-ter impact of organizational interventionson an institutional and individual levelthere should be a better integration be-tween interventions of the employmentauthorities and approaches which try tobring together health promotion and la-bour market reintegration. The existingresearch into active labour market poli-cies and various activation measures doesnot seem to give here conclusive advice.Too little is known about career develop-ment and health outcomes related to thetransitions and the impact of various in-terventions. There has also been little re-

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Antonio Luis Casanova ArgentinaJulian Cukier ArgentinaJosé Luis Drago ArgentinaMario Eduardo Leibel ArgentinaPaula Marcela Salvarredi ArgentinaMario Roberto Sanchez ArgentinaAlejandro César Trubian ArgentinaMarijke Soogen BelgiumTitus Motswadi Maswabi BotswanaMaria Elza Cordeiro BrazilMauro Curi Castanheira BrazilHelton De Souza Rosa BrazilGustavo Dutra Dos Santos Pereira BrazilJairo Oliveira Goncalves BrazilArizio Jose Fonseca De Azevedo BrazilLuiz Carlos Kulikowski BrazilLuis Fernando Manzano BrazilAlvaro Antonio Moreira Gomes BrazilIvan Jorge Ribeiro BrazilEber Assis Santos Junior BrazilRicardo Antonio Turenko Beca BrazilRicardo Villas-Boas Del Segue BrazilNduwamungu Barnabe’ Burundi

New Members

search on the socialization or re-sociali-zation in the workplace for the first en-trants or after a re-entry. This knowledgewould also be of great importance fordeveloping interventions to promote well-being, health and productivity in the on-going work transitions.

Traditional unemployment researchhas mainly focused on health effects ofthe victims of organizational restructur-ing, and there is still a controversy con-cerning the societal impact of unemploy-ment found at a macro level by means oftime series related to morbidity and so-cial disorganization. What has been widelyneglected in discussions on restructuringand health, is those who remain in thecompany after restructuring, the so-called“survivors-of-layoffs”: they experienceconsiderable stress levels as well due tothe changed requirements, new task de-signs with new routines and increased jobinsecurity. We should also focus on themanagers responsible for organizing theprocess, and revitalize the discourse onthe fate of the families of the victims andof the survivors as well as the communi-ties in which the restructuring occur. Ifwe want to preserve the key features of aEuropean social model as reflected in la-bour market and employment relationsunder the new demands of a globalizedcompetition we must not forget the indi-vidual effects of restructuring on the work-force which will show a considerable

long-term impact on the competitivenessof the economy as well: growth, compet-itiveness and employment go hand inhand. This understanding broadens theperspective from a unilateral sharehold-er perspective to a more balanced viewon the interests of all stakeholders in-volved in the process of economic adap-tation to the globalized economy.

There is empirical evidence that re-structuring processes which neglect theseissues often produce a vicious circle ofrestructuring leading into a loss of pro-ductivity after restructuring as ILO haspointed out. The health aspect of restruc-turing of the labour markets, labourmarket policies and enterprises should beconsidered an investment in the future atthe social and enterprise levels in the sameway as health is generally recognized as akey value and resource at the individuallevel. This understanding will bring stillnew stakeholders into the fore and havean impact on health insurance systems.This should also bear an impact on thenew research agenda of the SC Unem-ployment, Job Insecurity and Health.

The change of the labour marketsin the industrialized countries due to glo-balization means also increased focus ondeveloping countries and countries intransition. In order to understand thenew problems related to the new healthrisks, we must establish new dialogue onthe labour market development and

health with researchers on a global scale.The Scientific Committee on Unemploy-ment, Job Insecurity and Health has re-cently made very serious efforts to reachout to research from outside the West-ern countries, but much still remains tobe done in this respect. We see that itwould also be productive to enhancecooperation with some other scientificcommittees, for instance with the SC onSmall-scale Enterprises and InformalSector as well as the SC on Occupation-al Health & Development.

This paper describes some presentchallenges of the Scientific Committee andupdates the position of the ScientificCommittee in the changing labour mar-kets in a globalized world. In the indus-trialized parts of the world, the focus hasshifted from traditional unemploymentresearch to management of organization-al restructuring, work transitions, job in-security and research searching solutionsfor better and more secure participationin work life during the life course. In con-trast, the informal employment, under-employment, hidden employment andtraditional unemployment still hound thegreat majority of the countries of theworld and they have significantly less re-search potential.

Venant Kavuyimbo BurundiJakob Hjort Bonlokke DenmarkRaed Mohamed El Azab EgyptMaurice Bouziat FranceWolfgang Ahrens GermanyEleni Zorba GreeceStyliani Tziaferi GreeceLalitha Burra IndiaFrancesco Draicchio ItalyTomoko Ikeda JapanTatsuhiko Kubo JapanHiroto Nakadaira JapanKohei Nasu JapanAkihito Shimazu JapanEtsuko Takahashi JapanKazurou Yoshida JapanMutuku A. Mwanthi KenyaFredrick Odhiambo Ogonji KenyaZaiton Hassan MalaysiaMartha Gallegos MexicoRaul Jesus Gomero PeruEma Sacadura Leite PortugalClaudia Mariana Handra Romania

Roxana Maria Stamatin RomaniaMohamed Aqiel Dalvie South AfricaBasil Dhaniram South AfricaWillem Johannes Du Toit South AfricaRobin Virgil George South AfricaPo-Ching Chu TaiwanJoshua Mwita Matiko TanzaniaRamadhan Ladislaus Msimbira TanzaniaKees Hommes The NetherlandsIwona Van Zanten-Przybysz

The NetherlandsAlpaslan Erturk TurkeyYusua Matouu Katula UgandaNsubuga Fred Mangasi UgandaRonaldley Miti UgandaRada Kamil Dagher USALinda Susan Forst USAKaren Jacobs USAParveen Nedra Joseph USAMarie-Claude Lavoie USACustodio Valentim Muianga USAMargaret Quinn USARené Loewenson Zimbabwe

9

The 19th Asian Conference of Occupation-al Health (ACOH) was held from 17–19September 2008 in the wonderful smallcountry of Singapore at the Suntec Con-vention Centre. The theme for the con-ference was “Redefining OccupationalHealth in the Face of Globalisation”. Thechoice of the theme was due to the rapidindustrialization and increasing interna-tional movement of workers, industriesand technologies in the Asia-Pacific. Be-sides the “old” and prevalent problems,such as traumatic injury, respiratory dis-ease and occupational dermatitis, work-ers also face new hazards many of whichare transboundary. The conference thusaimed to address how occupationalhealth professionals can meet this dualset of challenges. The conference was alsoheld in conjunction with the annualOSH+Asia Exhibition and the 3rd Inter-national Public Health and OccupationalMedicine Conference.

There were numerous invited speak-ers at both the keynote and symposium

From left:Drs Edwin Whiteside, Yothin Benjawung,Lee Lay Tin, Yukinori Kusaka, Wai-OnPhoon, Kazutaka Kogi, BJ Singh, OscarTinio, Tsuyoshi Kawakami, Guo How-Ranand Gregory Chan

Asian Association of Occupational Health

AAOH NewsThe 19th Asian Conference on Occupational Health:Redefining Occupational Health in the Face of Globalisation

sessions, ranging from eminent organi-zations such as the ILO, ICOH; to multi-national companies like ExxonMobil andShell; to academics from Universities. Forinstance, Professor Jorma Rantanen,President of ICOH discussed in his key-note lecture “Globalisation and OSH:Challenges and Achievements” and DrSameera Maziad Al-Tuwaijri, Director ofthe International Programme on Safety& Health at Work, ILO spoke on “TheILO’s Role in Promoting Safe andHealthy Jobs”. We also learned aboutthe development of occupational healthin Singapore and the Middle East; aswell as an update on the asbestos situa-tion in the Asia-Pacific, the impact of en-vironmental endocrine disruptors onhealth and developments in occupation-al genetic epidemiology. The free paperand poster sessions also received strongparticipation from local and foreign del-egates. Dr Judy Sng from Singapore wonthe Young Asian Scientist Award for herpaper entitled “Changes in healthcare

workers’ risk perception and prepared-ness for respiratory infection outbreaksduring the SARS episode and 3 yearslater”.

The Council of the Asian Associa-tion on Occupational Health that metduring the 19th ACOH agreed to furtherits cooperation with ICOH in the regionand report about the conference to theICOH Newsletter.

The 19th ACOH has been a hugesuccess not just in terms of scientific up-dates; but also in fostering the relation-ships between the Asia-Pacific countries.We look forward to the 20th ACOH whichwill be held in November 2011 in Bang-kok, Thailand.

Report submitted by

Dr Gregory Chan1st Vice-President, Asian Associ-ation of Occupational HealthNational University of Singa-poreEmail: [email protected])

10

12th Conference on Occupational Health:Province of Buenos Aires

Occupational Health Society, Argentina

From left to right: Dr. Claudia de Hoyos (Argentina ICOHmember), Dr. Ernesto Barrios (Presidentof the Argentine Federation on Occupa-tional Health); Dr. Federico Marco(Argentina ICOH Emeritus Member),Dr. Sergio Iavicoli (ICOH SecretaryGeneral), Dr. Claudio Taboadela(Argentina ICOH NS); Dr. ElizabehtChavez (President of the UruguayanSociety of Occupational Medicine), Dr.Raul Barañano (Uruguay ICOH NS),and Dr. Antonio Werner (ICOH Honor-ary Member)

2nd River Plate Conference on Occupational Health:“Searching for Answers to Present Challenges of the

Occupational Health in the River Plate” (in conjunction with the Uruguayan Occupational Health

Society).

During 3–5 September 2008, the 12th Conference of Occupational Health and the 2ndRiver Plate Conference on Occupational Health were held in Buenos Aires, Argentina.The Conference topics were: Population Dynamics and Occupational Health, Ecotox-icology, The Role of National and International Occupational Health Societies, Occu-pational Health Emergencies: Safe and Security, Health Care Workers, AgriculturalMedicine and Rural Health in the River Plate, Corporate Social Responsibility andOccupational Health, Inequity and Globalization, Occupational Health and Meat In-dustry in the River Plate, Agricultural Medicine and Rural Health and Work underExtreme Conditions.

Dr. Sergio Iavicoli, Secretary General of ICOH attended the meeting and gave theOpening Lecture and a Magistral Lecture at the Ministry of Labour. Dr. Iavicoli wasdesigned Honorary Member of the Province of Buenos Aires Occupational HealthSociety. Dr Antonio Werner (Argentina), Honorary Member, Dr. Jorge Morales Cami-no (Mexico) Board Member, Dr. René Mendes (Brazil) Board Member, Dr. RaulBarañano, Uruguay NS and Dr. Claudio Taboadela, Argentina NS, President of theScientific Committee of the Conference, attended the meeting, too.

Dr. Iavicoli’s Opening Lecture

Dr. Sergio Iavicoli and Dr. Claudio Taboade-la during the Official Dinner

11

IntroductionThe Finnish Institute of OccupationalHealth has been working together withits East African sister institutions formore than three decades. During the pastfew years, much preparatory work hasbeen carried out both with the East Afri-can Community Secretariat, the membercountries, the Finnish Institute of Occu-pational Health, the Finnish Ministry forForeign Affairs, and the InternationalOrganizations WHO and ILO, as well asICOH.

Launching MeetingThe launching meeting of the RegionalProgramme was held on 25–26 Septem-ber in Arusha, Tanzania. Experts fromBurundi, Kenya, Tanzania and Ugandaattended. Experts from Rwanda had senttheir apologies, but looked forward tojoining the collaboration as soon as pos-

sible. The Finnish experts and expertsfrom ILO and ICOH acted as resourcepersons. During the 2-day meeting, clearplans for the countries to proceed in thefive objectives areas of the Programmewere prepared: development of occupa-tional safety and health management,including legislation; development ofservice infrastructures, and Basic Occu-pational Health Services in particular; Re-search and development, including indi-cators and profiles; Training in occupa-tional health and safety; and Informa-tion, communication and networking.

The planning work will continueover the next ten months and by nextautumn, a plan for a 4–5-year pro-gramme will be available for further de-cisions on continued funding.

Workplace visitsIn connection with the Launching Meet-ing, Tanzanian colleagues organized for

The Third International Scientific Conference on Occupationaland Environmental Health was successfully held in 21–23 Octo-ber 2008 in Hanoi, Vietnam by the National Institute of Occu-pational and Environmental Health in collaboration with theVietnam Association of Occupational Health, and InternationalScholars in Occupational and Environmental Health programat the University of Washington and Liberty Mutual ResearchInstitute for Safety in the United States.

Under the theme of ”Occupational and environmentalhealth in sustainable development”, the Conference boasted anattendance of 12 invited keynote speakers, 100 oral and posterpresenters and 200 participants from 13 countries around theworld to discuss the latest topics on occupational and environ-mental health in the region and in the world.

This conference was a scientific forum for scientists todiscuss on hazardous factors in work environment, workingconditions, health effects, occupational and work-related dis-eases in different occupations, interventions and measures forimprovement of working conditions, preventive measures forhealth protection for workers. In addition, it was an opportuni-ty to exchange information on environmental health and school

Organizing successfully the thirdInternational Occupational and Environmental

Health Conference in Hanoihealth which were practically meaningful to contribute to theimprovement of environment and health care and health pro-tection for children and community.

This conference was actively supported and contributedby the ICOH Scientific Committee on Occupational Health &Development (SCOHDev). One of the keynote speeches of theConference was delivered by the General Secretary of the SCO-HDev, Dr. Shyam Pingle.

ICOH and BOHS in East AfricaSuvi Lehtinen

the Finnish group two workplace visitsin order to discuss the challenges of theworkplaces, and to check the feasibility ofthe BOHS guides in practice.

In the launching meeting, nine ex-perts from the East African countrieswished to join ICOH. They were warmlybid welcome to the international networkof occupational health and safety experts.

Dr. Shyam Pingle, India

12

Meetings

THIRD ANNOUNCEMENT

South Africa and ICOH invite you.Download the combined brochure in English (1.8 MB) in A4 | Letter format.Download the 3rd Announcement Brochure (1.3 MB) in A4 | Letter format.Download the 2nd Announcement Brochure (1.7 MB) in A4 | Letter format.

You are invited to attend the 29th International Congress on Occupational Health at the Cape Town InternationalConvention Centre, South Africa. This triennial scientific event is supported by the International Commission onOccupational Health (ICOH).

The programme will bring together, for the first time in Sub-Saharan Africa, an international panel of experts withpresentations that will enable you to present quality Occupational Health Programmes with confidence. We invite youto submit an abstract and enjoy the excitement of sharing your research with colleagues from all parts of the globe.

The ICOH 2009 will be an international inventory of the new developments in occupational health research and in bestpractices during the last three years.

Please join us to discuss the present and the future developments of occupationalhealth and help to make Occupational Health a basic right and a valuable asset tosociety.

PROF DJ KOCKSChairperson:Organising Committee

PROF J RANTANENPresident: ICOH

www.icoh2009.co.za

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Obituary:

Dr. Bernardo Bedrikow (Brazil)

Brazil, Latin America and theWorld have lost a pioneer andleader in the field of Occupational Safety and Health – Dr.Bernardo Bedrikow – who

passed away on October 6th, 2008, just fiveweeks before turning 84 years. BernardoBedrikow is considered, respected and loved– along with Diogo Pupo Nogueira and Os-waldo Paulino – as one of the most out-standing professionals who pushed for-wards the development of OccupationalSafety and Health, in Brazil, in the Region ofthe Americas, and in other parts of theworld. A Medical Doctor graduated in 1947,he got his Master Degree in Public Health at Harvard School of Public Health,in the early 1950s, and then, attended a training program at the Institute ofOccupational Health in Lima, Peru. Back in Brazil, he dedicated his career to thedevelopment of an Outpatient Clinic on Occupational Diseases of the SocialService of Industry (SESI), in São Paulo, which became a local, regional andnational reference for research and training in Occupational Pathology, Toxi-cology and Industrial Hygiene in this country. Also, he served the School ofPublic Health of the University of São Paulo and the School of Medical Sciencesof “Santa Casa” of São Paulo, as Professor of Occupational Medicine. In 1977,he was hired by the International Labour Office, ILO, as Regional Adviser ofOccupational Safety and Health for Latin America and the Caribbean, based inLima, Peru. In 1981, he was transferred to the ILO Headquarters, in Geneva,where he served in the Section of Occupational Medicine, until his compulsoryretirement in 1985. Back in Brazil again, he spent 23 more years as Consultantand invited Professor, with and for several institutions, mainly the Social Serv-ice of Industry (SESI), the ILO’s Office in Brasília, the Ministry of Labor, theMinistry of Health, the Fundacentro Headquarters in São Paulo, the StateSecretary of Health (São Paulo), the School of Medicine of the University ofSão Paulo, and the School of Medical Sciences of “Santa Casa”. Within a broadscope of interests and a comprehensive area of scientific knowledge and erudi-tion, he was active in the ICOH family and in several ICOH events. Alwayscommitted to Workers’ Health values, Dr. Bernardo Bedrikow played a long-term role as a reference of good practice and a permanent availability andinterest in advising young generations of health professionals.

We will miss him a lot.

René Mendes – Brazil

14

Résumé en français

Message du Président

Chers membres de la CIST,

C’est la dernière fois que je m’adresse àvous par l’intermédiaire de ce bulletincomme Président de la CIST et mes senti-ments sont partagés. D’une part, j’ai desregrets de ne pas avoir été capable de ser-vir notre Association aussi bien que jel’aurais voulu. D’autre part, je suis fier etcontent de pouvoir laisser à mon succes-seur une organisation dynamique, de plusen plus jeune et avec de nombreux atoutspour le futur. Aujourd’hui, la CIST occu-pe une position de premier plan sur lascène internationale de la santé au travailet a des alliances fortes avec d’autres or-ganisations internationales.

La plus grande partie de la période2003–2008 a été marquée par un déve-loppement impressionant dans la vie autravail et par une augmentation continuedu niveau de vie et du bien-être de la po-pulation active et ce, à peu près dans toutle monde entier. Mais au cours des der-nières semaines, les perspectives ont prisune tournure complètement différente. Ledynamisme, l’énergie et la sagesse de laCIST ont été mis aux défis non seulementpar les brusques changements dans la viede travail mais aussi du fait de la criseéconomique qui est apparue soudaine-ment et s’est propagée comme une pan-démie.

Malheureusement, ce sont les tra-vailleurs en premier lieu qui, malgré eux,doivent en subir les conséquences. Celasignifie plus de travail et moins de res-sources pour la santé, l’environnement etla protection sociale. La santé au travailrisque d’être marquée par des réductionsbudgétaires. Nous devons rappeler à nosdécideurs politiques, dirigeants d’entre-prises et syndicats de l’évidence acquisedurant la dernière récession internatio-nale, il y a 15 ans, qui a montré que lesprogrammes et les services effectifs de laprotection sociale ont fait efficacementbarrage aux effets les plus négatifs de lacrise et ont accéléré le redressement del’économie. Le ralentissement de la crois-sance offre aussi une bonne occasion pouraméliorer les structures de base. Il y a aussiplus de temps pour améliorer les compé-tences et pour former le personnel.

Au cours des deux dernières pério-des triennales, nous avons mis l’accent sur

deux groupes de priorités : premièrementnous nous sommes concentrés sur lesactivités considérées comme essentielleset deuxièment, renforcé la CIST commeassociation. Le premier groupe des prio-rités a couvert, entre autres, le développe-ment des activités des Comités Scientifi-ques, ainsi que celui des services de santéau travail, l’amélioration de la communi-cation interne et externe, y compris la re-vitalisation de ce bulletin, et le perfection-nement continuel du site internet de laCIST. Le renforcement des dimensionséthiques et la collection et l’enrichissementde l’histoire et de l’héritage de la CIST ontégalement figuré parmi les priorités, par-ticulièrement en connection de la célébra-tion des évènements centenaires de laCIST.

Le deuxième groupe des priorités acompris le renforcement de la CIST com-me association par le biais du renouvelle-ment des règlements et la mise à jour deslignes directrices de la CIST. Les servicesaux membres ont été améliorés avec suc-cès par notre Secrétaire Général. NotreVice-Président a intensifié les activités desSecrétaires Nationaux et les liens avec lesassociations nationales. Une collaborationplus étroite avec les organisations inter-nationales a aussi été une de nos plusimportantes priorités.

Les membres du Bureau, des Co-mités Scientifiques, les Secrétaires Natio-naux et nos comités, groupes de tâches etgroupes de travail, y compris les réseaux,ont travaillé activement et rendu un pré-cieux service à la la CIST. Je veux remer-cier sincèrement mes chers collègues pourleurs contributions et leur soutien. Cela aété un privilège de travailler avec voustous. De la part de la direction, du Bureauet du Conseil, je veux également exprimermes vifs remerciements aux membrespour votre concours et votre participa-tion aux activités de la CIST.

Beaucoup a été réalisé mais il resteégalement beaucoup à faire. La prochai-ne direction faira face à d’immenses défisdans un monde du travail de plus en plusturbulent. Je suis convaincu que la CISTpeut relever ce défi. C’est pourquoi la CISTmérite une direction prévoyante et pro-fessionnellement et éthiquement forte quiest capable de diriger notre Association àtravers des changements de la vie du tra-vail global.

Je souhaite à la CIST, à son futurBureau et Conseil ainsi qu’à ses membresbeaucoup de succès dans sa mission pouraméliorer la santé au travail pour tous lestravailleurs du monde. Je voudrais con-clure en vous souhaitant mes meilleursvoeux pour les fêtes de fin d’année et unebonne année 2009.

Jorma RantanenPrésident de la CIST

Mots de l’Editeur

L’article qui introduit ce numéro traited’un thème d’actualité dans la vie de tousles jours : le chômage, la précarité de l’em-ploi et la santé. Cet article est écrit par ungroupe de scientifiques éminents partici-pant ardemment au développement desactivités des Comités Scientifiques de laCIST.

Les préparatifs pour l’élection desmembres du Bureau et du Conseil sonten cours. Les bulletins de vote ont été en-voyés à tous les membres en règle. Ilsdoivent parvenir au Secrétariat au plustard le 22 février 2009. Le Congrès 2009au Cap approche et je vous encourage àprendre connaissance de son program-me scientifique très intéressant et de s’yenregistrer.

J’ai eu le privilège de travailler avecvous tous pendant les six dernières an-nées. Le nouveau Président de la CISTdécidera de la manière dont la communi-cation de la CIST sera organisée pendantla prochaine période triennale. Si les ho-raires de parution ne sont pas changés, leprochain bulletin paraîtra à la fin du moisd’avril 2009. Comme nous ne connais-sons pas encore le futur, je vous prie d’en-voyer vos contributions et vos sugges-tions concernant le bulletin à[email protected]. Je transmettrai lematériel à la personne en charge du bulle-tin.

Pour recevoir votre exemplaire àtemps, veuillez vérifier que vous êtes en rè-gle et que vous avez informé[email protected] [email protected] de tout chan-gement d’adresse.

Suvi LehtinenEditrice

15


Chômage, précarité del’emploi et santé

par Thomas Kieselbach, Simo Mannilaet Jukka Vuori

1. Développement de l’agenda derecherche du Comité Scientifique surle chômage, la précarité de l’emploi etla santéLes premières recherches sur le chômageremontent à 1930, mais ce n’était pas avantles années 1980 que la recherche sur lechômage et la santé est devenue un do-maine majeur produisant des études dehaut niveau dans plusieurs pays occiden-taux. L’accroissement de ce domaine étaitaussi motivé politiquement : il y avait unepréoccupation générale sur le chômagecomme problème social et un intérêt surl’effet du chômage sur la santé. Cette pré-occupation était aussi partagée par le ré-seau du Bureau régional de l’Europe del’OMS qui s’ocupe des questions de l’iné-quité sociale et de la santé. La recherchetraditionelle s’occupait, en premier lieu,des effets sur la santé lors de la perte d’unemploi et, plus tard, aussi de l’impactpositif des interventions diverses dont lebut était de limiter les effets négatifs sur lasanté.

L’intérêt croissant de la recherchesur le chômage avec la nature changeantede la vie de travail et l’augmentation desfacteurs de stress psychosociaux et de lamortalité ont eu comme résultat l’établis-sement de deux nouveaux Comités Scien-tiques au sein de la CIST dans les années1990 dont le but était de trouver des solu-tions aux nouveaux défis de la santé autravail : le Comité Scientifique sur l’orga-nisation du travail et les facteurs psycho-sociaux et le Comité Scientifique sur lechômage et la santé (ce dernier a été re-nommé et est devenu en 2006 le ComitéScientifique sur le chômage, la précaritéde l’emploi et la santé). L’idée de la créa-tion du Comité Scientifique sur le chô-mage, la précarité de l’emploi et la santéétait de combiner la recherche psycholo-gique, sociologique et socio-médicale surle chômage et adapter cette recherche auxconsidérations de la politique sociale etde la gestion des ressources humaines quijusque là avaient été séparées du domai-ne de la santé au travail.

Quand Jean Bertran et BjorgulfClaussen de l’Université d’Oslo (Norvè-ge) ont invité les chercheurs spécialisés surle domaine du chômage du monde entierà se joindre à la CIST en 1998 et de formerun groupe de travail sur le chômage et lasanté, ils voulaient rapprocher l’une del’autre la recherche sur le chômage et surl’emploi.

L’idée était que l’accroissement dela précarité de l’emploi et le besoin de res-tructuration avaient comme résultat unesituation où les transitions de l’emploi, ycompris le chômage, devenaient de plusplus communes et que les transitionsétaient potentiellement stressantes pourles chômeurs et pour les personnes fai-sant face à la précarité de l’emploi et quec’était du devoir du système des servicesde santé au travail de faciliter l’adapta-tion à ces changements. Au cours des dixdernières années, le Comité Scientifiques’est concentré de plus en plus sur la qua-lité de la réinsertion professionnelle et surla précarité de l’emploi.

2. L’état des actualités du ComitéScientifiqueDurant les années 1990 et ce, dans tousles pays occidentaux, l’attention s’est di-rigée du chômage vers l’emploi c’est à diresur la précarité de plus en plus diversifiéedu marché du travail, sur le droit de tou-tes les personnes à participer au marchédu travail et sur le travail durant les diffé-rentes étapes de la vie. En même temps,la préoccupation concernant les liens en-tre le chômage, la précarité de l’emploi etla santé a diminué et a été remplacée pardes préoccupations purement économi-ques. Nous ne savons pas encore quel ef-fet la nouvelle récession causée par la cri-se financière aura sur l’agenda scientifi-que et sociopolitique dans les différentspays.

Le nombre croissant des transitions– du travail au chômage–– peut mettreen danger le bien-être, la motivation et lasanté des individus. Conformément àl’idée de la formation tout au long de lavie, les gens doivent mettre à jour leurformation et leurs capacités profession-nelles tout au long de leurs carrières pourgarder leurs places sur le marché du tra-vail. Cela change aussi la manière dontles jeunes font leur transition de l’école autravail.

Les employés qui, après une longueabsence, essaient de retourner sur le mar-ché du travail ou les personnes handica-pées qui veulent y entrer, ont du mal à seréinsérer. Les travailleurs vieillissants doi-vent faire face aux changements difficilesdu travail en même temps qu’ils essaientde se tenir au courant des changements etde rester en bonne santé et motivés avantleur dernière transition c’est à dire celledu travail à la retraite. Cela signifie quenous avons besoin plus que jamais deprogrammes améliorant la capacité detravail, basés sur la gestion des ressour-ces humaines et des interventions les ser-vices de santé au travail.

Malgré un nombre croissant depublications sur les transitions de l’em-ploi, le bien-être et la santé, il y a beau-coup de questions posées et très peu d’étu-des sur l’adaptation aux transitions et surleurs conséquences sur le bien-être et lasanté, la participation au travail et laproductivité à long terme.

3. Nouveaux défisLes preuves empiriques montrent qu’unnombre considérable de personnes licen-ciées éprouve des difficultés à s’adapter àde nouvelles situations sans soutien ex-terne. Cette nouvelle réalité a favorisé,entre autres, le développement du con-cept de « support social » dans les situa-tions de transition de l’emploi. Cela faitréférence à un système mis en place poursoutenir les gens qui sont en période detransition d’un emploi au chômage, quiont des plans de formation ou qui sont àla recherche d’un emploi et qui finale-ment reviennent sur le marché du travail.Ce processus nécessite une nouvelle inte-raction entre la gestion des ressourceshumaines et les services de la santé au tra-vail ainsi qu’entre les services de l’emploiprivés et publiques et comprend des in-terventions psychosociales et étend la res-ponsabilité des organisations au-delà del’emploi actuel (politique active de l’em-ploi ; programmes sociaux actifs).

Pour obtenir et garantir de meilleurseffets suite à des interventions aux niveauxindividuel et institutionnel, il faudrait unemeilleure intégration entre les interven-tions des autorités responsables de l’em-ploi et les approches qui visent à unir lapromotion de la santé et la réinsertionsur le marché du travail. Nous savons

16


trop peu de choses sur le déroulement descarrières, sur les effets à la santé en lienavec les transitions de l’emploi et sur l’im-pact de différentes interventions. Il y aégalement très peu d’études sur la sociali-sation et sur la resocialisation sur les lieuxde travail pour les travailleurs qui entrentsur le marché du travail et ceux qui y re-viennent. Cette connaissance serait trèsimportante pour le développement desinterventions pour promouvoir le bien-être, la santé et la productivité lors desépisodes de transitions.

Ce qui a été largement négligé dansla discussion sur la restructuration et lasanté, ce sont les employés qui restentdans l’entreprise après la restructuration: ils souffrent de stress à cause de nouvel-les exigences, de nouvelles planificationsde tâches, de nouvelles routines et d’uneprécarité croissante de l’emploi. Nousdevrions également porter une attentionparticulière aux gérants responsables del’organisation du processus et réactiverla discussion sur le destin des familles deslicenciés et des communautés dans les-quelles la restructuration a eu lieu.

Il y a des preuves empiriques queles processus de restructuration qui né-gligent ces questions, mènent souvent àl’installation d’un cercle vicieux de la res-tructuration qui a pour résultat la dimi-nuation de la productivité comme l’OITl’a démontré. La prise en compte de lasanté dans la restructuration, les politi-ques du marché du travail et les entrepri-ses devraient être considérées comme desinvestissements pour le futur aussi bienpour la société que pour les entreprisesde même manière à ce que la santé soitgénéralement reconnue comme une va-leur de base et une valeur au niveau indi-viduel. Cette compréhension apporteraplus d’acteurs sur cette scène et aura unimpact sur les systèmes des assurancesmaladies. Elle devrait aussi avoir un effetsur l’agenda de la recherche du ComitéScientifique sur le chômage, la précarari-té de l’emploi et la santé.

Le changement du marché du tra-vail dans les pays industrialisés causé parla mondialisation signifie qu’il faudraitprendre en compte de plus en plus les paysen voie de développement et en voie detransition. Le Comité Scientifique a faitde véritables efforts pour nouer des con-tacts avec la recherche en dehors des pays

occidentaux, mais il faut continuer cesefforts. A notre avis, la coopération avecd’autres Comités Scientifiques, par exem-ple les Comités Scientifiques sur les peti-tes et moyennes entreprises et le secteurinformel ainsi que sur la santé au travailet le développement, pourrait être fruc-tueuse.

Simo Mannila est secrétaire et Tho-mas Kieselbach est président du ComitéScientifique sur le chômage, la précaritéde l’emploi et la santé.

Deux Conférences sur lasanté au travail en Argentine

Du 3 au 5 septembre 2008, la 12ème Con-férence sur la santé au travail et la 2èmeConférence de Rio de la Plata sur la santéau travail ont été organisées à BuenosAires (Argentine). Les thèmes des confé-rences étaient : La dynamique des popu-lations et la santé au travail, l’écotoxico-logie, le rôle des sociétés nationales et in-ternationales en santé au travail , les dan-gers en santé au travail : sûreté et sécuri-té, les travailleurs des soins de santé, lamédicine agricole et la santé rurale de Riode la Plata, la responsabilité sociale desentreprises et la santé au travail, l’inéqui-té et la mondialisation, la santé au travaildans l’industrie de la viande de Rio de laPlata, la médicine agricole et la santé ru-rale et le travail dans des conditions ex-trêmes.

Le Docteur Sergio Iavicoli, Secrétai-re Général de la CIST a participé à la réu-nion et donné un discours d’ouverture etune lecture magistrale au ministère duTravail. Le Docteur Iavicoli a été nommémembre honoraire de la société de la san-té au travail de la province de BuenosAires.

Le Docteur Antonio Werner (Argen-tine), Membre Honoraire, le Docteur Jor-ge Morales Camino (Mexique), Membredu Conseil, le Docteur Raul Barañano,Secrétaire National, (Uruguay) et le Doc-teur Claudio Taboadela, Secrétaire Na-tional, (Argentine), Président du ComitéScientifique de la Conférence, ont égale-ment participés à la réunion.

3ème ConférenceInternationale sur la santéenvironnementale et la santéau travail

La 3ème Conférence Internationale de lasanté environnementale et sur la santé autravail a été organisée avec réussite du 21au 23 octobre 2008 à Hanoi (Vietnam)par l’Institut vietnamien de la santé envi-ronnementale et de la santé au travail encollaboration avec l’Association vietna-mienne sur la santé au travail et les uni-versitaires internationaux du program-me pour la santé environnementale et lasanté au travail de deux universités amé-ricaines.

Sous le thème de la santé au travailet de la santé environnementale dans ledéveloppement durable, la Conférence aattiré 12 orateurs invités, 100 présenta-tions orales ou de posters et 200 partici-pants venant de 13 pays pour discuter desthèmes les plus actuels.

Cette Conférence était un forumscientifique pour les chercheurs afin dediscuter des facteurs dangereux dans l’en-vironnement, des conditions du travail,des effets de santé, des maladies profes-sionnelles dans de différents métiers, desinterventions visant à améliorer les con-ditions de travail et des mesures préven-tives pour la protection de la santé destravailleurs.

La Conférence a été activement sou-tenue par le Comité Scientifique sur lasanté au travail et développement de laCIST. Un des orateurs principaux de laConférence était le Secrétaire Général duComité, le Docteur Shyam Pingle.

Nouvelle de l’Associationasiatique sur la santé autravail

La 19ème Conférence asiatique sur la santéau travail a été organisée du 17 au 19 sep-tembre 2008 dans le petit pays magnifi-que qu’est Singapour. Le thème de la Con-férence était « Redéfinir la santé au travailface à la mondialisation ». Le choix duthème était motivé par le fait de l’indus-trialisation rapide et le mouvement inter-national croissant des travailleurs, desindustries et des technologies dans la ré-gion Asie-Pacifique. La Conférence a ac-

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cueilli de nombreux orateurs invités, ycompris les représentants de la CIST etde l’OIT.

En hommage au DocteurBernardo Bedrikow (Brésil)

par René Mendes

Le Brésil, l’Amérique latine et le mondeont perdu un pionnier et une figure deproue dans le domaine de la sécurité et dela santé au travail – le Docteur BernardoBedrikow – qui nous a quitté le 6 octobre2008, seulement cinq semaines après avoireu 84 ans. Le Docteur Bernardo Bedrikowétait considéré et respecté – ainsi que Dio-go Pupo Nogueira et Oswaldo Paulino –comme un des professionnels les pluséminents qui a fait progresser la sécuritéet la santé au travail au Brésil, dans larégion des Amériques et dans d’autresparties du monde.

Ayant plusieurs domaines d’intérêtset une forte compréhension des connais-sances scientifiques ainsi que de l’érudi-tion, il était actif au sein de la CIST et deses nombreux évènements. Toujours en-gagé aux côtés des valeurs pour la santédes travailleurs, le Docteur Bernardo Be-drikow a été une référence depuis fortlongtemps sur les bonnes pratiques ettoujours disponible et intéressé à donnerdes conseils aux jeunes professionnels dela santé au travail. Il nous manquera énor-mement.

Stratégie européenne pourpromouvoir la santé et lasécurité au travail

par Jukka Takala, Agence européennepour la sécurité et santé au travail

Bien que les mesures judiciaires, les direc-tives, les lois nationales et les réglementssont importants, ils ne suffisent pas tousseuls. Il faut avoir une bonne sélection demesures différentes – souvent appeléecomme boîte à outils – qui est construiteautour de mesures judiciaires. Elle cou-vre, entre autres, le dialogue social, debonnes pratiques, des programmes desensibilisation, des services et de la recher-che, la responsabilité sociale des entrepri-

ses, des incitations économiques et uneintégration dans les différentes politiquesdes questions d’égalité entre les hommeset les femmes.

Au niveau de l’Union européenne,cette approche globale sur la sécurité et lasanté au travail a été adoptée sous la for-me d’une stratégie communautaire sur lasanté et la sécurité au travail. La dernièrestratégie communautaire 2007–2012 viseà réduire de 25 % les accidents du travailpartout dans l’Union pour 2012. Danscette stratégie, il y a aussi une référencespécifique pour réduire les maladies pro-fessionnelles, mais il n’était pas possiblede fixer un objectif quantitatif dû à l’ab-sence d’un point de référence approprié.Pour atteindre ces objectifs, cette stratégiefait appel aux acteurs de tous les niveaux–européen, national, local et sur les lieuxde travail.

Changements dans la main d’oeuvreet sur les lieux de travail

Les modèles de l’emploi et les structuressectorielles sont en train de changer. Laplupart des gens en Europe travaillentplutôt dans le secteur du service que dansla production primaire et l’industrie ma-nufacturière, ce qui signifie que les risquessont différents par rapport au passé: desrisques nouveaux et émergants, de nou-velles formules et des façons d’organiserle travail, de nouveaux matériaux, desproduits divers et chimiques comme lesnanoparticules. De la même manière, lamain d’oeuvre a subi des changements :plus de femmes, plus de travailleursvieillissants et plus de travailleurs mi-grants.

Les mesures clés pour atteindre lesobjectifs européens• Garantir une bonne exécution de la

législation de l’Union européenne.• Soutenir les PME dans l’exécution de

la législation en vigueur.• Adapter le cadre juridique aux change-

ments sur les lieux de travail et le sim-plifier, surtout pour les PME.

• Promouvoir le développement etl’exécution des stratégies nationales.

• Encourager les travailleurs à changerleurs comportements et leurs emplo-yeurs à adopter des approches focal-isées sur la santé.

• Perfectionner les méthodes pour iden-tifier et pour évaluer de nouveaux ris-

ques potentiaux.• Améliorer le suivi des progrès.• Promouvoir la santé et la sécurité au

niveau international.Un concept clé et un pilier fonda-

mental pour atteindre les objectifs de cet-te stratégie sont le développement et l’exé-cution des stratégies nationales cohéren-tes dans les pays membres de l’Union. Unpremier pas dans le développement d’unestratégie et d’un programme est la prépa-ration d’un profil national sur la sécuritéet la santé au travail.

Qu’est-ce que la CIST et ses mem-bres peuvent faire ?

La CIST et ses membres peuvent1. encourager les gouvernements de leurs

pays à ratifier la convention numéro187 de l’OIT, de respecter la résolutionde l’OMS et de prendre des mesuresnécessaires pour mettre en place unestratégie, un programme et un profilnational en matière de santé et de sé-curité au travail.

2. coopérer avec les autorités nationales(p. ex. l’Inspection du Travail)

3. fournir des expertises en vue de fixerdes priorités nationales basées sur larecherche et des faits, et étudier lesbonnes pratiques des autres pays.

4. fournir des expertises pour établir etaméliorer la couverture des services desanté au travail.

5. promouvoir les contacts et le dialogueentre les travailleurs, les employés, lesgouvernements, les organisations pro-fessionnelles et les associations natio-nales.

6. suivre les lignes directrices éthiques dela CIST.

Nous avons besoin de valeurs et deniveaux harmonisés pour la sécurité et lasanté au travail. L’Europe sociale doit trai-ter de tous les travailleurs et de leurs fa-milles d’une façon égale malgré leur sexe,leur nationalité, leur langue et leur âge oula taille, le secteur ou la localisation deleurs lieux de travail.

ICOHOfficers

ICOH Board Members

PresidentProf. Jorma Rantanenc/o Finnish Institute ofOccupational HealthTopeliuksenkatu 41a AFIN – 00250 Helsinki, FinlandTel: +358 30 474 2010Fax :+358 30 474 2548e-mail: [email protected]

Secretary GeneralProf. Sergio IavicoliISPESLNational Institute for Occupa-tional Safety and PreventionVia Fontana Candida 100040 Monteporzio Catone(Rome), ItalyTel: +39 06 94181407Fax: +39 06 94181556

e-mail: [email protected]

Vice PresidentDr. Marilyn Fingerhutc/o NIOSHRoom 715H Humphrey Bldg,200 Independence Av. SW,Washington DC 20201,USATel: +1 202 401 6997Fax: +1 202 260 4464e-mail: [email protected]

Vice-PresidentDr. Kazutaka KogiInstitute for Science of Labour2-8-14, Sugao, Miyamae-kuKawasaki 216-8501,JapanTel: +81 44 977 2121Fax: +81 44 977 7504e-mail: [email protected]

Past PresidentProf. Bengt Knavee-mail: [email protected]

Prof. Sin Eng CHIADept. of COFM, Faculty ofMedicine (MD3),National University of Singa-pore,16 Medical Drive,Singapore 117597,SingaporeTel: + 65 6874 4970Fax: + 65 6779 1489


Mr. Ian EddingtonFaculty of Business, University ofSouthern QueenslandPost Office Darling HeightsToowoomba, Qld 4350, AustraliaTel: +61 746 311250Fax: +61 746 315594e-mail: [email protected]

Mr. Kaj ElgstrandIndustrial EcologyRoyal Institute of TechnologySE-100 44 Stockholm, SwedenTel: +46 8 790 8784e-mail: [email protected]

Dr. Brigitte FronebergFederal Institute for Occupation-al Safety and HealthNöldner Str. 40-42D-10317 BerlinGermanyTel: +49 30 57548 4402Fax: +49 30 51548 4190e-mail:[email protected]

Prof. Hua FuFudan UniversityP.O. Box 248138 Yixueyuan RoadShanghai 200032, ChinaTel: +86 21 5423 7202Fax: +86 21 6422 3464e-mail: [email protected]

Prof. Michel GuilleminUniversity of LausanneInstitute of Occupational HealthSciences Rue Du Bugnon, 19LausanneSwitzerlandTel: +41 0 213147420Fax: 41(0) 213147420e-mail:[email protected]

Prof. John HarrisonConsultant OccupationalPhysicianProfessor, Clinical OrganisationalDevelopmentBrunel UniversityClinical Director OccupationalHealth Occupational HealthDepartmentHammersmith HospitalDu Cane Road London W12 0HSTel: +44 20 8383 4875e-mail:[email protected]

Dr. Petter KristensenNational Inst. of OccupationalHealthP.O. Box 8149 DepN0033 Oslo, NorwayTel: +47 2319 5100Fax: +47 2319 5200e-mail:[email protected]

Ms. Suvi LehtinenFinnish Institute ofOccupational HealthTopeliuksenkatu 41a AFIN-00250 Helsinki, FinlandTel : +358 30 474 2344Fax : +358 30 474 2548e-mail: [email protected]

Prof. René MendesAv.São Luis, 192 Apt.1602São PauloSP Brazil CEP 01046-000Tel: +55 11 8380-0954e-mail: [email protected]

Dr. Jorge MoralesCorporativo Procter & GambleLoma Florida # 32 Col. Lomas deVista HermosaMexico, D.F. 05100Tel. + 52-55-57242109Fax. + 52-55-57242102e-mail: [email protected]

Mr. Franklin Kithinji MuchiriDirectorate of OccupationalHealth and Safety ServicesP.O Box 34120,Nairobi,KenyaTel: + 254 2 550 825Fax: + 254 2 544 428e-mail: [email protected]

Prof. Antonio MuttiUniversity of ParmaViale Gramsci, 1443100 ParmaItalyTel: +39 0521 033075Fax: +39 0521 033076e-mail: [email protected]

Prof. Yves RoquelaureCentre Hospitalier UniversitaireAngers CedexF-49933 FranceTel: +33 2 41 35 37 64Fax: +33 2 41 35 34 48e-mail:[email protected]

Ms. Jennifer SerfonteinPO Box 27167Greenacres 6057Port Elizabeth, South AfricaTel: +27 41 401 2800Fax: +27 41 401 2801Email: [email protected]

Prof. Ken TakahashiDepartment of EnvironmentalEpidemiologyUniversity of Occupational &Environmental HealthOrio, YahatanishikuKitakyushu City 807-8555, JapanTel: +81 93 691 7454Fax: +81 93 601 7324e-mail: [email protected]

Prof. Frank Van Dijk

Coronel Institute of Occupation-al HealthAcademic Medical CenterPO Box 227001100 DE AmsterdamThe NetherlandsTel. + 31 20 56665325Fax. +31 20 6977161


Dr. Martha WatersNational Institute forOccupational Safety and Health4676 Columbia Parkway R-16CincinnatiOhio 45226, USAe-mail: [email protected]

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