O futuro do trabalho após a COVID-19: o papel incerto do teletrabalho no domicílio

Resumo Introdução: o teletrabalho no domicílio, uma das medidas adotadas para controlar a pandemia de COVID-19 e, ao mesmo tempo, manter o emprego, tem aumentado em vários países. Objetivo: refletir sobre o significado, a magnitude e as tendências do teletrabalho no domicílio, antes e durante a pandemia, enfatizando seus potenciais efeitos na saúde do trabalhador. Discussão: a precedente Convenção 177/1996 da Organização Internacional do Trabalho (OIT) sobre trabalho a domicílio e o acordo sobre teletrabalho entre agentes sociais na União Europeia, em 2002, apontam a dificuldade de regulamentar essa nova forma de organização do trabalho e da prevenção de possíveis lesões e doenças associadas, especialmente transtornos mentais e distúrbios musculoesqueléticos. São necessários estudos sobre os efeitos na saude dessa modalidade de trabalho para fornecer evidências científicas que embasarão normas em nível nacional e global. A inclusão de questões específicas e bem definidas, como as que a OIT propõe, em futuros levantamentos sobre as condições de trabalho, emprego e saúde poderá auxiliar tal objetivo e proporcionar uma oportunidade para observar os efeitos do teletrabalho no domicílio na saúde do trabalhador, bem como avaliar o impacto de uma necessária e urgente regulamentação.

Pesticide risk perceptions among bystanders of aerial spraying on bananas in Costa Rica

Little is known about how bystanders perceive risks from pesticide use in areas with frequent aerial spraying of pesticides. This research aims to better understand how bystanders (school workers) from three counties of the Limón province in Costa Rica, who did not have a contractual relationship with agricultural production, perceive risks of pesticides in the areas where they work and live. A face-to-face survey was carried out among 475 school workers, of whom 455 completed all 33 questions on pesticide risk perception. An exploratory factor analysis characterized underlying perceptions of pesticide exposure. Nine factors explained 40% of total variance and concerned severity and magnitude of perceived risk, manageability, benefits and support of pesticide use, amongst others. We subsequently analyzed what variables explained the five factors with satisfactory internal consistency, using separate multivariable linear regression models. Older school workers, (male) elementary teachers, and women school workers (particularly from schools situated near agricultural fields with aerial spraying of pesticides), felt greater severity and/or magnitude of risk from pesticide use. This study shows that bystanders are concerned about health risks from pesticide use. Their risk perceptions are not only shaped by gender and age like previously reported in the literature, but also by job title and geographical context. Understanding of what hazards people care about and how they deal with them is essential for successful risk management, bystanders should therefore be considered as a relevant actor in debates around pesticide issues and for informing the development of regulations and risk reduction strategies.

Identical and Nonidentical Twins: Risk and Factors Involved in Development of Islet Autoimmunity and Type 1 Diabetes

OBJECTIVE

There are variable reports of risk of concordance for progression to islet autoantibodies and type 1 diabetes in identical twins after one twin is diagnosed. We examined development of positive autoantibodies and type 1 diabetes and the effects of genetic factors and common environment on autoantibody positivity in identical twins, nonidentical twins, and full siblings.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS

Subjects from the TrialNet Pathway to Prevention Study (N = 48,026) were screened from 2004 to 2015 for islet autoantibodies (GAD antibody [GADA], insulinoma-associated antigen 2 [IA-2A], and autoantibodies against insulin [IAA]). Of these subjects, 17,226 (157 identical twins, 283 nonidentical twins, and 16,786 full siblings) were followed for autoantibody positivity or type 1 diabetes for a median of 2.1 years.

RESULTS

At screening, identical twins were more likely to have positive GADA, IA-2A, and IAA than nonidentical twins or full siblings (all P < 0.0001). Younger age, male sex, and genetic factors were significant factors for expression of IA-2A, IAA, one or more positive autoantibodies, and two or more positive autoantibodies (all P ≤ 0.03). Initially autoantibody-positive identical twins had a 69% risk of diabetes by 3 years compared with 1.5% for initially autoantibody-negative identical twins. In nonidentical twins, type 1 diabetes risk by 3 years was 72% for initially multiple autoantibody-positive, 13% for single autoantibody-positive, and 0% for initially autoantibody-negative nonidentical twins. Full siblings had a 3-year type 1 diabetes risk of 47% for multiple autoantibody-positive, 12% for single autoantibody-positive, and 0.5% for initially autoantibody-negative subjects.

CONCLUSIONS

Risk of type 1 diabetes at 3 years is high for initially multiple and single autoantibody-positive identical twins and multiple autoantibody-positive nonidentical twins. Genetic predisposition, age, and male sex are significant risk factors for development of positive autoantibodies in twins.

[Basic questionnaire and methodological criteria for Surveys on Working Conditions, Employment, and Health in Latin America and the Caribbean]

This article aimed to present a basic questionnaire and minimum methodological criteria for consideration in future Surveys on Working Conditions, Employment, and Health in Latin America and the Caribbean. A virtual and face-to-face consensus process was conducted with participation by a group of international experts who used the surveys available up until 2013 as the point of departure for defining the proposal. The final questionnaire included 77 questions grouped in six dimensions: socio-demographic characteristics of workers and companies; employment conditions; working conditions; health status; resources and preventive activities; and family characteristics. The minimum methodological criteria feature the interviewee's home as the place for the interview and aspects related to the quality of the fieldwork. These results can help improve the comparability of future surveys in Latin America and the Caribbean, which would in turn help improve information on workers' heath in the region.

Social movements and risk perception: unions, churches, pesticides and bananas in Costa Rica

BACKGROUND

Between 1992 and 2010 in the Costa Rican Caribbean, a social movement coalition called Foro Emaús sought to change people's view on problems of high pesticide use in banana production.

OBJECTIVE

To understand the formation and membership of Foro Emaús, its success period, and its decline.

METHODS

Semi-structured interviews of 28 key actors; a questionnaire survey among school personnel (n = 475) in Siquirres, Matina, and Talamanca counties; and secondary data from newspapers, leaflets, and movement documents were used.

RESULTS

Foro Emaús developed activism around pesticide issues and put pressure on governmental agencies and banana companies and shaped people's perception of pesticide risks. The success of the Foro Emaús movement led to the reinforcement of a counteracting social movement (Solidarismo) by conservative sectors of the Catholic Church and the banana companies. We found that the participation of unions in Foro Emaús is an early example of social movement unionism.

CONCLUSIONS

Scientific pesticide risk analysis is not the only force that shapes emerging societal perceptions of pesticide risk. Social movements influence the priority given to particular risks and can be crucial in putting health and environmental risk issues on the political and research agenda.

Indigenous children living nearby plantations with chlorpyrifos-treated bags have elevated 3,5,6-trichloro-2-pyridinol (TCPy) urinary concentrations

BACKGROUND

The US Environmental Protection Agency voluntary phased-out residential use of chlorpyrifos in 2001. In contrast, in Costa Rica, chlorpyrifos-treated bags are increasingly used to protect banana and plantain fruits from insects and to fulfill product standards, even in populated areas.

OBJECTIVES

To evaluate children's exposure to chlorpyrifos in villages situated nearby banana plantations and plantain farms in Costa Rica.

METHODS

The study targeted two villages with use of chlorpyrifos-treated bags in nearby banana plantations and plantain farms and one village with mainly organic production. For 140 children from these villages, mostly indigenous Ngäbe and Bribri, parent-interviews and urine samples (n=207) were obtained. Urinary 3,5,6-trichloro-2-pyridinol (TCPy) levels were measured as a biomarker for chlorpyrifos exposure. In the banana and plantain village also environmental contamination to chlorpyrifos was explored.

RESULTS

Children from the banana and plantain villages had statistically significant higher urinary TCPy concentrations than children from the referent village; 2.6 and 2.2 versus 1.3μg/g creatinine, respectively. Chlorpyrifos was detected in 30% of the environmental samples as well as in 92% of the hand/foot wash samples. For more than half of the children their estimated intake exceeded the US EPA chronic population adjusted dose. For some, the acute population adjusted dose and the chronic reference dose were also exceeded.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results suggest that children living nearby plantations with chlorpyrifos-treated bags are exposed to chlorpyrifos levels that may affect their health. Interventions to reduce chlorpyrifos exposure are likely to improve children's health and environment in banana and plantain growing regions.

Pesticide use in banana and plantain production and risk perception among local actors in Talamanca, Costa Rica

The Talamanca County in Costa Rica has large-scale banana and small-scale plantain production, probably causing pesticide exposure in indigenous children. We explored to what extent different community actors are aware of children's pesticide hazards and how their awareness related to socio-economical and cultural conditions. Methods comprised eight focus groups with fathers and mothers separately, 27 semi-structured interviews to key actors, and field observations. As a whole, the indigenous plantain farmers and banana plantation workers had some general knowledge of pesticides concerning crop protection, but little on acute health effects, and hardly any on exposure routes and pathways, and chronic effects. People expressed vague ideas about pesticide risks. Inter-community differences were related to pesticide technologies used in banana and plantain production, employment status on a multinational plantation versus smallholder status, and gender. Compared to formalized practices on transnational company plantations, where workers reported to feel protected, pesticide handling by plantain smallholders was not perceived as hazardous and therefore no safety precautions were applied. Large-scale monoculture was perceived as one of the most important problems leading to pesticide risks in Talamanca on banana plantations, and also on neighboring small plantain farms extending into large areas. Plantain farmers have adopted use of highly toxic pesticides following banana production, but in conditions of extreme poverty. Aerial spraying in banana plantations was considered by most social actors a major determinant of exposure for the population living nearby these plantations, including vulnerable children. We observed violations of legally established aerial spraying distances. Economic considerations were most mentioned as the underlying reason for the pesticide use: economic needs to obtain the production quantity and quality, and pressure to use pesticides by other economic agents such as middlemen. Risk perceptions were modulated by factors such as people's tasks and positions in the production process, gender, and people's possibilities to define their own social conditions (more fatalistic perceptions among banana workers). The challenge for the future is to combine these insights into improved health risk assessment and management that is culturally adequate for each particular community and agricultural context.