Protecting Workers' Health in the Third World : National and International Strategies

This impressive inquiry into Third World health problems linked to industrialization offers positive directions for both national and international strategies. Occupational health and safety issues, often given low priority as developing countries seek to advance their economies, are seen in their compelling importance through studies on China, Colombia, Costa Rica, India, Malaysia, Nicaragua, South Africa, and Sri Lanka.

Part One describes the nature and scope of work-related health problems in developing countries. Health policies designed to meet national needs in the changing work and industrial settings are analyzed through case studies in Part Two. National strategies are considered in Part Three as means of improving work-related health conditions, and Part Four proposes strategies at the international level to improve Third World occupational health. This is an authoritative analysis with substantive recommendations which will affect the thinking of health policy makers and public health planners in the international community and the Third World.

MICHAEL R. REICH is Director of the Takemi Program in International Health and Associate Professor of International Health at the Harvard School of Public Health. His major research interests are health policy analysis and the political economy of health and development, with particular concern for environmental and occupational health issues. He has edited International Cooperation for Health and Health, Nutrition, and Economic Crises, both of which were published by Auburn House.

TOSHITERU OKUBO is Professor of Environmental Epidemiology at the Institute of Industrial Ecological Sciences, University of Occupational and Environmental Health, Japan. In addition to his own research on occupational health problems in Japan, Dr. Okubo has directed training programs on occupational health problems in Third World countries, sponsored by the Japan International Cooperation Agency, with consulting experience on these problems in several Asian countries.