Occupational Health Indicators for South Africa

Abstract

Indicators, statistics gathered from a larger pool because they have the power to summarize or to serve as indirect or proxy measures for information that is lacking, would be valuable in appraising occupational health status in a country provided data are both feasible and relatively inexpensive to collect. A generally accepted set of occupational health indicators does not exist. This project aimed to compile a set for South Africa. An initial set of possible indicators was compiled and then rated by key informants. A committee of the National Centre for Occupational Health selected a final set of 16 indicators. The indicators and limited data collected on some of them are presented with commentary. The validity and the impact of the indicators need to be formally assessed.

Those Who Don’t Return: Improving Efforts to Address Tuberculosis Among Former Miners in Southern Africa

“…40,41 Compliance with these standards was so rare that a 2008 audit on mining health and safety described the industry as having “a pervasive culture” of noncompliance and that “the list [of inadequate preventative measures] goes on and on.” 40,41 Although a reduction of respirable silica dust concentrations may have taken place over the last half of the twentieth century, in 1999, only eight out of forty-eight (17 percent) of gold mines had dust concentrations below the current occupational standard of 0.1 mg/m 3 . 42 Research suggests, however, that this may be nonprotective: even if the current occupational standard for dust (0.1 mg/m 3 ) is met, such a significant risk of silicosis and, by implication, other silica-related diseases would remain. 14,43 In 2016, the United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration recognized the insufficiency of the current standard and established a new silica dust exposure limit of 0.05 mg/m 3 for an eight-hour time-weighted average, 44 but it is not an international standard.…”