By 1996, the population of the Americas Region at 781 million, of this, the economically active population (EAP) was 351 million, or 44.9% of the total population, corresponding to 201 million (57.3%) to Latin America and the Caribbean, 150 million (42.7%) to the USA and Canada, forecast to reach 270 million in 2005 1,2. Developing countries face the dual pattern of work in transition economies, increasing between countries and within them, increasingly differentiated strata of workers, since employees of multinational companies to workers in the informal sector for survival, which accentuates social inequality and health
The Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLAC) estimates that the percentage of employed in the informal sector on total non farm employment increased in Latin America from 51.6% in 1990 to more than 56.7% in 1996 4. According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), the new jobs are being created are mostly low quality of every 100 new jobs, 85 are in the informal sector.
Technological development has significantly transformed the forms of production, creating the appearance of new and varied threats at work. A study by the World Health Organization (WHO), conducted by Leigh et al. 6 shows the importance of risk factors in terms of mortality and potential years of disability-adjusted life.
WHO, in its publication “Health and environment in sustainable development. Five years after the Earth Summit”, 7 draws attention to the exposure to risk factors in workplaces, including highlights the risks physical overload and risks, which affect 30% of the workforce in developed countries, and from 50 to 70% in developing countries, the biological (more than 200 agents), the physical (affecting 80 % of the workforce in developing countries) and chemicals (over 100 000 different substances in most economic activities, including teratogens and mutagens that particularly affect the maternal and reproductive health of workers ).
