Occupational hygiene in Africa.

In an editorial 6 years ago, Hans Kromhout (1999) commented on the scarcity of occupational hygiene publications, which took into account developing countries, and looked forward to the 4th International Occupational Hygiene Association (IOHA) Conference in Cairns, where their problems were to be a major theme. In September 2005, the 6th IOHA Conference became the first IOHA Conference to be held in Africa, after three conferences in Europe, one in Asia and one in Australia. The conference, at Pilanesberg, South Africa, was an excellent opportunity to raise the profile of occupational hygiene in the African continent. I will not be the first to conclude that the level of occupational safety and health in Africa is low compared with the rest of the world. Generally the opinion is that in Sub-Saharan Africa public health problems are so massive that occupational health problems are subordinate to those like child mortality, malnutrition, water quality and AIDS. It is true that these factors are the main causes of the short life expectance of the African population. But working conditions also influence the life expectance. The Comparative Risk Assessment Collaborative Group has evaluated the causes of diseases and premature mortality due to a variety of hazards (Ezatti et al., 2002). Their studies reveal that in Africa, work-related factors cause twice as many lost years (expressed in disability adjusted life years, DALY) per thousand people as in Europe and North America.