Occupational Health and Safety in the Expanding Economies: Severe Challenges and the Need for Action Through Education and Training

The occupational health and safety (OHS) situation in expanding economies is not encouraging. As was dramatically demonstrated by the recent epidemic of Ebola virus disease in West Africa in which many health care workers lost their lives, the majority of low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are currently not able to adequately prevent occupational diseases. Every year occupational health services in these countries fall farther behind those in high-income countries (HICs). The widening gap in occupational health services between the global north and the global south parallels the increasing gap between high- and low-income countries in national wealth, a gap apparently caused by unbalanced development of globalized markets.