Aspects of life, work and health among laborers in the ornamental stone industry

Abstract

The process of health and disease is socially determined, whereby work is a factor that strongly influences the morbidity/mortality profile. The scope of this article is to study the relationship between work and health conditions reported by the workers of the ornamental stone industry and residents from the district of Cachoeiro de Itapemirim, State of Espírito Santo. It is an epidemiological cross-sectional study with data collection through a questionnaire applied to 187 workers at their homes using statistical, descriptive and analytical methods. A considerable percentage of workers stated self-reported acute morbidity (45.5%) and chronic morbidity (44.9%), as being related to work (56.5% and 51.2% respectively). Despite the broad perception by the workers of the risks of the environmentally insalubrious work conditions, those who cited morbidity related the ergonomic aspects of work to musculoskeletal disorders in the main group of disorders presented. The high percentage of morbidity is the result of these individuals being subject to a work-related process where the conditions and the work organization cause physical and mental strain, being determined by the way work is socially divided in that sector.

Workers' health; Ornamental stones; Self-reported morbidity