WOMEN & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTHBY:SARATU GARBA ABDULLAHIMSc. NURSING 2nd YEAR

OCCUPATIONAL & ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH FOR WOMEN

In 1973, WHO defined the Scope and Extent of Occupational Health Programmes as follows:

• To identify and bring under control at the workplace all chemical,

physical, mechanical, biological and psychological agents that are

known to be or suspected to be hazardous.

• To ensure that physical and mental demands imposed on people at

work by their respective jobs are properly matched with their

individual technical, physiological and psychological capabilities,

needs and limitations.

CONT>>>>

• To provide effective measures to protect those who are

especially vulnerable to adverse working conditions and also to

raise their level of resistance.

• To discover and improve work situations that may contribute to

the ill health of workers in order to ensure that burden of general

illness in different occupational groups is not increased over the

community level.

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CONT>>>>>

• To educate management and workers to fulfil their

responsibilities relevant to health protection and promotion.

• To carry out in plant health programmes, dealing with man’s

total health, which will assist public health authorities to raise

the level of community health.

WOMEN & WORK

It is a fact that all women work. They perform dual roles of production and reproduction. Their work goes unrecognized because they do a variety of jobs daily which does not fit into any specific ‘occupation’. Most of them are involved in arduous household work. Although women work for longer hours and contribute substantially to family income, they are not perceived as workers by either the women themselves or data collecting agencies and the government.

WOMEN & WORK CONT>>

To understand the issue of occupational health problems of women, it is necessary to make a detailed study of the women’s work in terms of the actual activity undertaken, the hours of work and the extent of remuneration received.

WOMEN & WORK CONT>>>

• The so-called housewife is already doing a single shift. If a woman

also works outside home, she is consistently working a double shift.

When children or family members are ill, she does three shifts day

after day. On an average, women work much longer hours than men.

According to International Labour Organization (ILO), 2/3rd of the

working hours around the world are worked by women because of the

combination of various roles in the workplace, in the family and in the

society. Most often, the women’s work remains invisible but it

contributes a major portion to the world economy.

PATTERN OF EMPLOYMENT FOR WOMENThe pattern of employment of women is very different among different countries: In developed countries, most of the women are employed in white collar jobs or as semiskilled operatives in manufacturing industries. In USA in 1975, there were 37 million women workers (46.3% of all women) and in 1995 this figure is around 60%. In India on the other hand, according to 1981 census, workforce participation by females was barely 15% (main workers) as against 51.6% amongst males.

CONT>>>>

• According to the 1991 census, the participation of female workers has

increased to 16.03 % (main workers) In addition, 6.24% of females

have been shown as marginal workers and the remaining women

(305.2 million) are shown as a non working population (Indian Labor

Statistics, 1994, Labour Bureau, Ministry of Labour, Shimla (1996).

The 1991 census also shows that of these 16.03% main women

workers, 80.8% are employed in agriculture, 3.5 % in house hold

industries, 4% in other industries, 0.3% in mining and quarrying, 0.6

% as construction workers and only 10.8% in other services.

CONT>>>>>

• However, there is gross underestimation of women’s work in

this data. Almost 30-40% of non-working women are actually

marginal workers. A large number of these marginal women

workers are engaged in occupations in order to supplement

family income in various ways such as, collection of firewood

and cow dung, maintenance of kitchen gardens, tailoring,

weaving and teaching. Moreover inadequate attention has been

paid to ‘unpaid family labour’ and household work.

CONT>>>>

• In India, most of the working women are employed in the unorganized

sector, which includes agricultural labourers, workers in traditional

village and cottage industries, migrants to the cities in domestic

service, day labourers, street vendors,etc.In agriculture, the most

important occupation in developing countries, women play an

important role in agricultural production, animal husbandry and other

related activities such as storage and marketing of produce, food

processing etc. Apart from these activities, they spend almost 10-12

hours per day doing household chores.

SPECIAL PROBLEMS AFFECTING OH OF WOMEN IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Even in countries like Sweden, which is looked upon as a role

model in nearly all aspects of the well-being of mankind, Monica

Boethius, who heads the Swedish Work Environment Fund’s

equality programme, writes: “Despite decades of campaigning

for equality, women still earn less than men, have less chance of

promotion, often given work not up to their qualifications and are

more exposed to health

hazards than men.”

FACTORS AFFECTING WOMEN OH

• Population: In developing and overpopulated countries like

India, poor working women are at a great disadvantage as due

to availability of excess labour, there is always job insecurity.

Introduction of newer technologies often adversely affects

unskilled women workers who are the first to suffer loss of job.

CONT>>>>>

• Poverty, illiteracy, malnutrition and infectious diseases:

Women workers of many developing countries are caught in

the vicious cycle of low productivity, low income,

undernutrition and infectious diseases leading to lower work

capacity. Low literacy level, poor sanitation and lack of public

amenities further contribute to ill health.

CONT>>>>>

• Sociocultural beliefs: In many communities in India birth of a girl

child is unwelcome and women submit to multiple pregnancies till a

male child is born. This adversely affects the health of the mother and

reduces her working capacity besides posing the extra load of caring

for a large family. The status of women in a society is largely affected

by its cultural beliefs. In India, obedience to and dependence on men

(father, husband and son) is considered traditional and scared. This

often culminates in the girl child getting minimum nutrition, poor

educaton and poor access to health care facilities.

CONT>>>>>

All factors mentioned above have a direct or indirect

bearing on the occupational health of women. In India, it is not

considered appropriate for women to work outside home for

wages but past few decades have seen more and more women

working outside home for economic necessities.

GENDER PERSPECTIVE OF WOMEN OH

• Basically hazards posed by physical, chemical and biological

agents in work place are similar for male and female workers but

the following factors have to be remembered for women workers.

• Women on an average, have a smaller stature and have less

physical strength; their vital capacity is 11% less; their

hemoglobin is app. 20% less; their skin area is larger as compared

to circulating volume; they have larger body fat content. They

have lower heat tolerance and greater cold tolerance.

CONT>>>>>>

Woman’s unique reproductive function exposes her unborn child

to workplace hazards. Women shoulder additional burden of

house hold work, care of children and social responsibilities.

• Occupational stress is one of the major problems from a gender perspective. Studies from developed countries show that sources of stress in women’s lives are more diverse and diffuse than those experienced by men. A number of factors cause stress among working women. These include:

CONT>>>>>

a. Multiple overlapping roles as housewives, mothers and

workers especially when such roles are physically and mentally

demanding with little satisfaction, monetary gain or social

rewards;

b. Types of job repetitive and monotonous jobs with little control

over work pace and methods, piece rate system and job

insecurity all lead to stress;

CONT>>>>>

a. Sexual harassment: This is often faced by women in almost all

types of occupations except when they occupy top level jobs. It

is widely believed that employers show a preference for

women only when they are prepared to accept lower wages, are

expected to be more docile and submissive;

b. Shift work: In certain occupations, such as telephone operators

who do different shifts including night shifts, interference with

family responsibilities causes lot of stress.

Musculo-skeletal disorders and ergonomic issues:

• The heavy manual labour performed by malnourished women often under subhuman working and living conditions, cause a number of health problems of which musculoskeletal problems are one of the commonest problems of women in unorganized sector.. Repetitive trauma is often the cause of a variety of musculoskeletal and neurologic disorders in women.

Reproductive health hazards

Many chemicals pose hazards to the embryo especially during

organogenesis. This has led to restriction on the employment of

women in various hazardous processes under various legislation

(e.g. Factories act,1984.)Exposure to volatile organic solvents,

dusts and pesticides and VDT (Video display terminal)

nonionizing radiation has been found to be associated with

increased risk of infertility in women. This could be due to

interference with ovulation, fertilization or implantation.

Important occupational health problems in women recognizedby National Institute of Occupational Health, India.

• Acute poisonings: The Institute has started a Poison

Information Centre with the technical collaboration of IPCS

(International Programme on Chemical Safety). For the past 5

years, nearly 800 acute poisoning cases have been referred to

this centre physicians.

Acute pesticide poisoning:

The commonest type of acute poisoning reported in 70% of cases has been pesticide poisoning. So far 64% cases were males and 33% were females, with the largest number of poisonings occuring between 18-25 yrs in both sexes. The lesser number of poisonings reported in females may be due to poor accessibility of women to health care facilities.

Acute methemoglobinemia

• in plastic scrap cleaners: Poor women often carry out washing of

plastic bags and containers contaminated with a variety of

chemicals used in dye industry which is one of the major industries

in Ahmedabad region. Dermal absorption of these chemicals results

in acute methemoglobinemia requiring hospitalization. Many such

cases have been reported to NIOH Poison Centre and investigations

have revealed these chemicals to be p-chloroaniline, p-

nitrochlorobenzene (PNCB), o-tolidine, p-anisidine, nitrobezene

etc.

Green Tobacco Sickness (GTS):

• This has been reported in a number of studies conducted by

NIOH. During the process of tobacco cultivation, many

agricultural women laboures have reported GTS (Green

Tobacco Sickness) due to dermal absorption of nicotine

manifesting as headache nausea, vomiting, giddiness

associated with high levels of nicotine and its metabolite

cotinine in urine of these women.

Chronic-occupational health problems of women studied by NIOH

Even though occupational health problems of women have been

considered a thrust area for research in India, most of the studies

carried out in the field of Occupational Health have not

specifically focussed on women workers per se. In most of the

studies, women have been included in the study as a part of the

total sample.

Silicosis

• Detailed studies have been carried out in many occupations

involving exposure to silica dust. Among these, a high

prevalence of silicosis in both males and female workers was

found in slate-pencil workers and Agate workers. In the surface

coal mines, the prevalence of silicosis was less.

NEEDS FOR PROMOTION OF OH OF WOMEN WORKERS

WHO has identified three basic principles for the development of an

occupational health service.

• It must be ensured that occupational health services are provided

through the existing national health services by a process of

integration.

• The service must provide for the total health of the workers and if

necessary their families. The primary health care approach must be

the chosen system for the delivery of such services.

CONT>>>>>• 3. The occupational health problems of working

women, especially those in the unorganized sector are a matter of urgent concern. There is also a definite need to develop a database on occupational health of women in developing countries. For primary health care approach to delivery of occupational health, it is essential to create awareness among the health personnel, NGO’s and Womens organizations. It is very important to understand that chronic occupational diseases are only preventable but rarely curable. Even though, in developing countries, health priorities focus more on infectious diseases, improving the health of workers (especially women ) will contribute tremendously to national growth and economy.