The development and state of health and safety in the workplace in west Africa: perspectives from Nigeria.
Occupational health practice originated in Europe following the systematic work of Bernadino Ramazzini in Italy at the turn of the 17th century. It grew mostly under the notion of Industrial health, concentrating on the chemical, mechanical and social conditions of labourers as well as the work of the arts and trades, until the work of Charles Turner Thackrah in Britain broadened its understanding to include the professions and certain civic ways of living. In West Africa, as in most of the developing world, occupational health and safety practice came to us mostly as side products of the colonial company health work, in their attempt to fulfil the requirements of their national health laws to their citizens here. The first organised effort to boost occupational health and practice for the Africans among the Africans, and involving mainly Africans, came in the 1960s with the first African Conference on Occupational health in Africa in Lagos in 1968. This process has gone on now, albeit rather slowly, until the citing of a Chair of Occupational health at the University of Ibadan by the Society of Occupational Health Physicians of Nigeria in the 1992/93 academic year. The health and safety in industries in Nigeria have however not been in anyway adequate from studies in that area, especially among the indigenous small and medium sized companies. This paper reviews these developments and proposes some suggestions on how to improve on the speed and accuracy of these developments, specifically in Nigeria; and by extrapolation, for the West Africa sub-region as well.
Asuzu
M C
MC
Department of Preventive & Social Medicine, College of Medicine, University College Hospital, Ibadan, Nigeria.
D003906:Developing Countries; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D009549:Nigeria; D009786:Occupational Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D009937:Organizational Objectives; D016730:Program Development; D017132:Workplace