| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
|
|
|
|||||||
|
|||||||||
LETTER |
Correspondence: Requests for reprints should be sent to Herbert K. Abrams, MD, MPH, Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Arizona, PO Box 245143, Tucson, AZ 85724 (e-mail: hka{at}u.arizona.edu).
Nuwayhid is correct when he says "tangible progress in occupational health can be achieved only by linking health to the broader context of social justice."1(p1916) However, this truth applies not only to developing countries but, equally, to those that are developed. As we consistently observe in the United States, for example, occupational health suffers when there is a backward administration in power and it prospers when a more progressive administration is in control. This situation applies equally to all efforts to better the lot of the poor, whether with regard to occupational illness, AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, or medical care in general.
Farmer encapsulates the situation when he speaks of "structural violence" in our societies and the "disparity of power."2 An especially interesting picture of how occupational health and health in general varies with changes in the social, economic, and political milieu is illustrated by the evolution of China since liberation in 1949. In the early years, there was a renaissance of health work, resulting in the eradication of venereal diseases, the reduction of many infectious and vector-borne diseases, and an explosion of work toward occupational disease and accident control. It was the time of the barefoot doctor, the worker-doctor, and universal health care. The national slogan was "Serve the People." Today, with the so-called economic reforms, many of those gains have been lost.3 Similarly, within any country, there will be found variations in levels of concern.4
In "A Short History of Health,"5 I trace these relationships over time and note the repeated verity of Nuwayhid’s linking of occupational health (and health generally) with the social context.
References
1. Nuwayhid IA. Occupational health research in developing countries: a partner for social justice. Am J Public Health. 2004;94:1916–1921.
2. Farmer P. Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and the New War on the Poor. Berkeley: University of California Press; 2003.
3. Abrams HK. The resurgence of sexually transmitted disease in China. J Public Health Policy. 2001;22(4): 429–440.[Medline]
4. Abrams HK, Meister J. Third World medicine in the US—the migrant farm workers. IAAMRH J. 1992;6(1).
5. Abrams HK. A short history of occupational health. J Public Health Policy. 2001;22(1):34–80.[Medline]
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
