Throughout the world, women's health is frequently damaged by their work, according to a recent report in the newsletter of the European Trade Union Technical Bureau for Health and Safety. The report is based on the second international congress on Women, Work and Health, held by scientists, trade unionists and feminists in Rio de Janeiro last September.

Brazilian delegates said that women in the chemical and textile industries reported miscarriages due to chemicals and excessive workplace noise. They also reported hormonal disorders and restrictions on lavatory use.

Women in the construction industry suffered from a high prevalence of sterility, varicose veins, repetitive strain injuries and sinusitis. Female employees in the household electrical industry endured long working hours, attention deficit disorders and "robotisation".

Women farm workers suffered from pesticide poisoning. Stress, depression and emotional upset were reported common in all industries.

Women in Brazil were limited to a narrow range of jobs, with nearly 80 per cent confined to nursing, domestic service, farming, sales and the manufacture of clothing and household electrical goods.

In South Africa, 500,000 women work on commercial farms. The Industrial Health Research Group at Cape Town University found women's work hazardous. They suffer from chronic pain, a poor quality of life and are low paid, while their reproductive health being damaged by exposure to pesticides.

Problems identified included a lack of occupational health services, especially for reproductive health, violence against women at work and a lack of childcare provision.

In India 22.73 per cent of women (i.e. 90 million out of 403 million) work outside the home. Of these 87 per cent are farm workers. Women suffer from nutritional difficulties, a lack of access even to free healthcare and they live a hand-to-mouth existence lacking in human dignity, according to the report.

Despite being a major food producer, half of all Indian children suffer from malnutrition, while 60 per cent of women and 75 per cent of pregnant women suffer from anaemia. Swedish women's working conditions worsened during the last decade, according to the report. More women are in part-time or insecure jobs with increased productivity demands. While women in Sweden still receive better support for child and elder care than in other countries, support was cut back in recent years, the report says.

The bureau notes that in Sweden a 1993 revision of the Occupational Risks Insurance Act 1976 led to a dramatic reduction in occupational injury claims. The 1976 legislation created a presumed causal link in the worker's favour between the workplace and the injury complained of but now the onus of proof is on the injured party.

"The invisibility of women's work hazards such as musculoskeletal disorders makes it very hard to establish a cause/ effect link between work-related risks and specific diseases," notes the report.

Meanwhile, a report in the French magazine Sante et Travail says that in Italy many women suffer from musculoskeletal disorders from quick, repetitive movements. Three trade union confederations in Milan set up a women's occupational health taskforce which included doctors, trade unionists and safety representatives. According to the Sante et Travail report, the work of the taskforce "lifted the veil on a state of affairs hitherto disregarded even in highly-unionised workplaces: the large number of women engaged in fast-paced work".

The taskforce engaged an ergonomics agency to survey nine workplaces in different sectors employing women. The result was "an outpouring of all the disorders and pain caused by the way they were forced to work the machines", says Ms Marina Finardi, head of the health and environment department at the Italian Confederation of Labour Unions, Milan.

Women could be placed under considerable strain due to frequent movements, vibrations, poorly designed machinery and a lack of rest breaks, she says. This can give rise to carpal tunnel syndrome, shoulder tendinitis, tennis elbow, numbness and pain in the fingers, hand or wrist.

The bureau was established in 1989 by the European Trade Union Confederation to provide expertise to the confederation on health and safety. Website: www.etuc.org/tutb