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Saturday 20, November, 2004 13:30 - 15:30, No.2 Conference Room Workshop E Epidemiology and Public Health Chairs: Gunnar Hillerdal and Kohki Inai Implantation of an Integrated Health Surveillance System of Workers for the Areas that Use Asbestos in Brazil Hermano Albuquerque de Castro, Cyro Haddad Novello, Fernanda Giannasi, Vanda D'Acri, Maria Blandina Marques dos Santos and Katia Reis de Souza Institutional Project: CESTEH/ENSP/FIOCRUZ (Oswaldo Cruz Foundation - Brazil) [not- attended, paper submission] ABSTRACT: Introduction: The occupational and environmental exposure to asbestos dust is associated with diseases as: asbestosis, lung cancer, pleural mesothelioma and pleural diseases. The national surveys referring to work conditions and health repercussions have shown an increase of cases of illness related to asbestoses. It is estimated that approximately 50.000 workers have been directly exposed to asbestos in Brazil. In agreement with the effective norms in the country, the workers exposed to asbestos owe to be accompanied by the companies for at least 30 years after the end of exposure to asbestos. The construction of an environmental and epidemic surveillance system becomes necessary to give visibility to the illness and to know the number of people exposed to asbestos in Brazil, as well as their clinical, radiological and functional status. It is also intended to know the total amount of companies that have used asbestos in Brazil. Objectives: To set up an integrated system of health surveillance for workers exposed to the asbestos in Brazil with the purpose of knowing these workers' social, environmental and epidemic aspects, seeking actions that make quality of life improvements possible. Method: It is used an on-line system tied with Health Ministry. The system is composed of personal exposure and clinic information. Definition of the minimum team of work, set up of the inspection methodology and inspection of the working environments, stressing knowledge and employee participation and development of the educational process. Results: By now, five of eleven States began to register in cadastre, by region, the workers that were exposed to asbestos. We have around two thousand registered workers, with clinical and occupational information. Conclusion: The importance of understanding asbestos as a Public health problem is emphasized. The banishment of asbestos should be followed by an effective surveillance in order to minimize residual environmental impact and to follow exposed workers health conditions. The construction of a surveillance system will allow Brazilian Health Ministry and the Unique Health System to attend health and environmental process in several productive processes where asbestos was used. |