At the Point of Production

At the Point of Production, a compilation of contributions to New Solutions Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health Policy, locates workers' health and safety problems in the broad political economy. It argues that without a deep understanding of the social/political/economic context of particular industries or workplaces, we cannot fully grasp the process of recognition and control of industrial hazards. The contributors report on a series of case studies, all of which used the "point of production" framework to investigate particular problems or industries. The focus of the first section is on globalization, the impact of privatization on the health and safety of workers and communities in Brazil and Mexico. The next section addresses environmental issues: the unintended effects of environmental regulation on workers, the situation of hazardous waste workers and emergency responders, the implementation of toxics use reduction, and the role of workers in pollution prevention. In the third section the contributors explore the intersection of labor relations with gender relations at the point of production. A final chapter deals with some of the practical issues involved in conducting occupational health research in the contested terrain of the workplace

Charles Levenstein, Ph.D., M.Sc., is an economist and policy analyst. He is Emeritus Professor in the Department of Work Environment, University of Massacchusetts, Lowell, retiring from teaching in 2003, and is adjunct professor of occupational health at Tufts University School of Medicine. Dr. Levenstein is one of the leading researchers concerned with social factors in occupational and environmental health. He chairs the advisory committee for United Steel Workers federally funded projects and for The New England Consortium, and he served on the IOM/NAS Committee on Health and Safety Needs of Older Workers. His most recent book (with Greg deLaurier and Mary Lee Dunn), The Cotton Dust Papers (2002), concerns the 50-year struggle for recognition of byssinosis ("brown lung") in the United States. Dr. Levenstein is Editor Emeritus of New Solutions, a quarterly peer-reviewed journal of occupational and environmental health policy, and coeditor of Baywood Publishing Company's Work, Health and Environment Series. He is a recipient of the American Public Health Association's award for lifetime contribution to occupational health