A construção do campo da saúde do trabalhador

Cadernos de Saúde Pública Print ISSN 0102-311X Cad. Saúde Pública vol.13 suppl.2 Rio de Janeiro 1997 doi: 10.1590/S0102-311X1997000600003 ARTIGO ARTICLE
A construção do campo da saúde do trabalhador: percurso e dilemas
History and dilemmas in the development of the worker's health field

Carlos Minayo-Gomez 1
Sonia Maria da Fonseca Thedim-Costa 1

Abstract This article reflects on the theoretical and practical foundations impacting and shaping the field of workers' health in Brazil, as part of the overall field of collective health. By analyzing the various forms of approaching the relationship between work and health, the paper emphasizes its complex and conflicting nature as a central reference for the work process, in keeping with the premises of social medicine in Latin America. This focus underscores the need for interdisciplinary approaches contemplating and even extrapolating the links between areas of knowledge generally ascribed to the field of health. Finally, the paper gives a brief diagnosis of the current situation in this field, where pending questions join those resulting from globalization of the economy and particularly industrial restructuring, in light of which the challenge is raised to broaden the objects of study and intervention to include the implications of outsourcing, increasingly precarious labor conditions, informal labor, and unemployment on the population's health and living conditions.
Key words Worker's Health; Work; Social Medicine Resumo Realiza-se, neste artigo, uma reflexão sobre os fundamentos teóricos e práticos que influenciam e conformam o campo da Saúde do Trabalhador no Brasil, no interior da Saúde Coletiva. Ao analisar as diversas formas de conceber a relação trabalho-saúde, enfatiza-se a pertinência de interpretar essa relação, dada sua natureza complexa e conflitiva, tendo como referência central o processo de trabalho, em consonância com os pressupostos da Medicina