Occupational Hazards in the Informal Sector — A Global Perspective

Abstract

This paper drawson reported global experience and a 1997 survey of 1585 informal sector workers in Zimbabwe (Loewenson 1997b). The growth of the informal sector is largely attributed to the inability of the formal sector to provide adequate incomes or employment, leading to the poor consumer markets and capital starvation of the informal sector. Various informal sector workplaces are described, including home based enterprises, displaying a wide range of poorly controlled work hazards, particularly welfare and hygiene, ergonomic and chemical hazards, worsened by poor work organisation, and poor community environments and social infrastructures. The generally hidden but substantial burden of ill health in informal sector work is described. Improving occupational health in the sector can be done through implementing existing knowledge, but demands efforts toconfront the underlying risk environments tha tundermine the application of such knowledge. Such efforts include building social capital and organisation within the sector, enhancing collective support systems and public infrastructures, supporting multisectoral community based approaches, and ultimately confronting the underlying economic marginalisation of informal sector work.