Abstract
Unstructured and unregulated work is expanding fast among low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Furthermore, accumulation of urban waste resulting from overconsumption is a global concern. Hence, waste management and recycling have received increased attention. One specific waste category pertaining to electrical and electronic waste (e-waste) is growing at a higher rate than other waste streams. Recycling of e-waste is largely informal and disproportionately relies on LMICs, exposing workers to various occupational and environmental health risks. In order to promote safer work practices and limit a broad range of occupational health and safety concerns associated with informal manual work, the broader psychosocial and sociocultural environment also deserves attention. This symposium will discuss contemporary issues in informal, unregulated, unstructured work in LMICs, primarily in Africa and South America. The goal of the symposium is to call attention to both, the unique occupational context of informal work, and the need for new ergonomics methods to address occupational exposure assessment and musculoskeletal injury prevention adapted to informal work in limited resource settings.
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Acknowledgements
Symposium organizers C.D. and B.M. were partially supported by the training grant T42-OH008455 from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
J.N.F. was supported by the 1⁄2 West Africa-Michigan CHARTER in GEOHealth with funding from the US National Institutes of Health/Fogarty International Center (NIH/FIC) (paired grant nos. 1U2RTW010110–01 and 5U01TW010101) and Canada’s International Development Research Center (IDRC; grant no. 108121–001).
The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the official policies of nor endorsement by NIH, NIOSH, CDC, and/or the Canadian and US Governments.
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D’Souza, C., Martin, B., Fobil, J.N., Todd, A., Gomes, J.O. (2021). Musculoskeletal Disorders in Unstructured, Unregulated Work: Assessment Methods and Injuries. In: Black, N.L., Neumann, W.P., Noy, I. (eds) Proceedings of the 21st Congress of the International Ergonomics Association (IEA 2021). IEA 2021. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 222. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74611-7_99
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