YUFA
External
Report on Canadian
Labour Congress Conference:
Healthy Workplace, Healthy Environment – Alliances for Activists
Ottawa,
January 28-30, 2005
Submitted by Gene Desfor, Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University
I attended the CLC Health and Safety Conference, arriving in Ottawa on the evening of Jan 27th and staying until the afternoon of Jan 30th.
The purpose of the conference was to enable participants to develop an understanding of the full range of occupational and environmental diseases including communicable diseases, chemical sensitivities, musculo-skeletal and stress-related diseases. In addition the conference focused on the impact on health of global warming and preventive action through the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change Preventive action in the workplace and through labour-community alliances.
The bulk of the time at the conference was structured into three workshops: “Occupational and Environmental Diseases,” “Climate Change, Kyoto, Jobs and Health,” and “Ergonomics and Stress – Related Diseases.”
The first workshop on occupational and environmental diseases focused on a wide range of physical disorders that result from exposure to hazardous biological, chemical and physical agents in both the workplace and general environment. These diseases include: respiratory disorders; reproductive and genetic disorders; cardiovascular disease; multiple chemical sensitivity; infectious diseases; and cancer. Workshop participants were expected to familiarize themselves with a fact sheet about these diseases, review the material and discuss the following major points: the major pollutants; the sources of these pollutants; the health effects of these pollutants; and potential actions to reduce these pollutants that a union, government or industry might take.
The second workshop, “Climate Change, Kyoto, Jobs and Health,” examined the fairly well established pattern of climate change and its influences on heath. Global changes in the earth’s temperatures are driving severe and unpredictable weather patters. The number of extreme weather events has tripled in the last 40 years. Overall, precipitation has increased, although the increase is not evenly distribute around the globe or in all seasons. Some areas have witnessed increased rain and snowfall, others have dramatic declines. In addition to the huge damage, injury and death from some of these catastrophic events, we are also seeing a flooding of coastal regions, forest fires soil erosion and an increase in diseases and pests.
Until recently scientists and policy makers focused on how the earth’s physical systems would be affected by global warming. They examined the potential for rising sea levels and more frequent and powerful hurricanes. More recently, however, it has become apparent that global warming and climate change is having a complex and more serious impact on human health globally. Some of the current trends are likely to get worse if major corrective actions are not taken, such as:
· Heat waves: increasing heat stress in the community and workplace;
· Increasing air pollution, including ground level ozone and respiratory disease;
· Depletion of stratospheric ozone: increase in skin cancer
· More contact with previously remote disease carriers;
· Increasing rates of death and infectious diseases due to proliferation of pests such as mosquitoes, rats and mice; and
· Movement of disease-carrying pests to areas where people lack immunity.
Discussion in the workshop took up issues associated with the causes of global warming, major sources of greenhouse gases, the major environmental and health effects of global warming, Canada’s program for meeting the Kyoto Protocol, initiatives for an effective climate change policy, and labour’s role in an effective climate change program.
The third workshop discussed ergonomics and stress related diseases in the workplace. Regrettably, our work is organized and our tools and workplaces designed with one objective in mind – maximization of productivity and reducing production costs. The other related objective is to organize work in a manner that maximizes the employer’s control over production and the worker. These have major physiological and psychological impact on workers. In fact, this state of affairs has resulted in enormous burden of work-related injury, illness and disease, which is all preventable if the work was designed to meet the needs of workers.
Musculo-skeletal injury is the category of injury and disease caused by poor ergonomics and stress. These are acute and chronic injuries sustained by the muscles, joints, nerves and tendons as a result of the physical stresses of work. They result from the accumulated wear and tear caused by repetitive work, static / awkward postures, or forceful movements. These injuries are sometimes called cumulative trauma disorders or repetitive strain injury. Some of these injuries include: tendonitis, tenosynovitis, carpal tunnel syndrome, epicondylitis, fibromyalgia, bursitis, thoracic outlet syndrome, plantafascitis and chronic back pain.
Stress-related disorders are the other major category of injury and disease. These disorders are caused by chronic physiological and psychological generalized stress response triggered by various workplace stressors. These stressors could include work pressure caused by workload demands, hot, cold, noisy or dusty work environments. Chronic pain from working with musculo-skeletal injuries is also a stressor. Various forms of harassment – sexual, racial, and supervisory – are stressful. Some stress-related disorders include: cardiovascular disease, cognitive illnesses, and chronic colds and flu due to immune suppression.
The final plenary session of the conference on Sunday morning focused on strategies that could be useful to unions in improving health and safety workplace conditions. In this session the difference between prevention and regulation was identified and discussed. Improvements to health and safety conditions can frequently be achieved more readily through pursuing preventive rather than regulatory conditions.
One of the major issues about which I gained an appreciation was the way Joint Health and Safety Committees are structured. Other university representatives indicated that their committees are composed of all-union representatives and are organized on a department or building basis, with an over-arching joint committee to consider university wide policies or practices. I believe this makes sense for York, and I hope to pursue this re-organizing possibility.