Occupational Health and Safety in the Expanding Economies: Severe Challenges and the Need for Action Through Education and Training.

The occupational health and safety (OHS) situation in expanding economies is not encouraging. As was dramatically demonstrated by the recent epidemic of Ebola virus disease in West Africa in which many health care workers lost their lives, the majority of lowand middle-income countries (LMICs) are currently not able to adequately prevent occupational diseases. Every year occupational health services in these countries fall farther behind those in high-income countries (HICs). The widening gap in occupational health services between the global north and the global south parallels the increasing gap between highand low-income countries in national wealth, a gap apparently caused by unbalanced development of globalized markets. Review of the relatively scant published literature on occupational health services in expanding economies finds that these services tend to be inadequate in the following areas: a) capacity (ie, the number of available trained OHS professionals; b) the range of OHS services provided; c) adoption and ratification of international guidelines such as International Labor Organization conventions; and d) implementation of national OHS policies. Professional education and training provided by international networks of dedicated scientists offers a powerful strategy for enhancing occupational health services in LMICs by increasing the number of trained OHS professionals. Several international courses are currently providing this type of education in locations around the world: