HEALTH
Tenosynovitis: Thousands of Women Suffer
This is a disease that few will recognize, yet it affects thousands of women all over the world but particularly in assembly-line situations.
Assembhng work which many women do in factories, particularly in Asia, is seen as light work. But there are health risks imposed by its repetitive nature. The constant, repetitive, forceful movements of the fingers, wrists and elbows at high speed can lead to an inflamation of the tendons and muscles that have been overused. It causes extreme pain in the affected limbs and can lead to permanent crippling if not properly attended.
The ever-increasing speed of the production hne and existence of the piece-rate system, quota system or other incentive systems are all contributive to women workers developing tenosynovitis. Yet in most Asian countries, tenosynovitis is not recognized as an occupational disease hable to workers' compensation. Very often, when women workers suffer from tenosynovitis, they are just advised to quit the job and find another. In most cases, this would mean unemployment because these women have no other skills to find other forms of work.
Source:
CAW newsletter vol 6 no 2
Black Women's Health Project
This national project began in 1983, and its inaugural meeting was attended by a wholly-unexpected 1000 people. As Sharon Gary Smith, director of the self-help program, said, "we rolled out of a conference into a movement."
The project now has a national office in Atlanta, which networks with 52 chapters in the USA, in St Thomas (US Virgin Islands) and Nairobi, Kenya. At resent there are 3000 women involved, and the group is becoming a voice for women.
The group makes women comfortable about the situations from which they come; it provides a warm, caring atmosphere for women to examine their own physical and psychological problems, share information and get help from each other.
Information therefore moves in a cyclical way through the groups of women all over the country. The national office seeks solutions which the women cannot generate from among themselves.
Source:
Women Speak No 21
VDU Users: More Health Problems
The findings of the most extensive for changes in the design of jobs, British survey yet on Visual Display machinery and the office. Units and Health, were presented to the 1987 conference of the VDU Source: Workers' Rights Campaign held in Outwrite issue 58 London. The research shows that VDU workers, mostly women, take more sick leave, and complain of more muscular aches and pains, headaches and stress than other workers. Over 80% of VDU workers reported eye and vision problems.
The Conference, attended by 120 trade union representatives and VDU workers, heard that a direct correlation has been found between the incidence of health complaints and the amount of time spent on a VDU. The research backs up the VDU Workers' Rights campaign's demands for a statutory limit on the time VDU workers spend on the machine. The campaign is calling for a maximum of 50% of the working day to be spent of a VDU, the right of prospective parents to transfer off VDU work and for changes in the design of jobs. machinery and the office.
source:
Outwrite issue 58