Hazards of cottage and small industries in developing countries

✍ Scribed by Jeffrey P. Koplan

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1996
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 122 KB
• Volume: 30
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0271-3586
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-0274(199608)30:2<123::aid-ajim1>3.0.co;2-1

✦ Synopsis

In this issue of the American Journal of Industrial Medicine, McCann describes the health hazards of working in cottage industries in developing countries [McChnn, 19961. This article is a welcome addition to the literature of occupational health. Although sporadic papers have been published on specific hazards in individual cottage industries, little summary material has appeared on this subject.

Health problems related to cottage industries are well recognized but poorly documented concerns of the major international development and health organizations, the World Bank and the World Health Organization, respectively [Feachem et al., 1992; World Bank, 19931. Although cottage industries are often associated with small, usually home-based crafts production and artistry, the small-scale industries of developing countries share some of the circumstances that make arts-associated cottage industries especially dangerous.

These circumstances include a developing economy; loose or minimal governmental occupational health regulations that are laxly enforced or that may not apply to small industry and to home-based operations; infrastructure, public services, and utilities that are too compromised to ensure safe food, water, air (indoor and outdoor), and sewage and solid waste management; and insufficient knowledge of workplace health hazards associated with different tasks and materials, along with little understanding of preventive approaches to limiting these hazards. Thus, a developing economy that fosters small and cottage industries may pro-