Title: New APHA “Trade and Public Health Working Group” Formed by Section Members
Author:
Section/SPIG: Occupational Health and Safety
Issue Date:
At the Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C., last November, APHA Executive Director George Benjamin convened a meeting of several sections (OHS, International Health, Medical Care) to consider how APHA can address the public health issues, including occupational health, arising in the numerous international trade and investment treaties currently in negotiation and already proposed. Benjamin asked the three sections present to take the lead in pulling together an informal working group on this issue. Tom Connor and I, co-chairs of the Section’s International Committee, were asked by the Section leadership to represent OHS in the Working Group.
APHA already has a policy resolution of trade issues from 2001 (Policy Resolution 2001-21) and Immediate Past President Virginia Caine has been outspoken in her concern about the adverse health effects of NAFTA and its successors. The January 2005 issue of the American Journal of Public Health has an excellent article on the impact of trade agreements on global health written by Ellen Shaffer from the Medical Care Section and CPATH (<www.cpath.org>). Occ health-specific impacts of trade agreements have been analyzed by Section members Linda Delp <www.labor.ucla.edu/publications/nafta.pdf>) and Garrett Brown (<www.igc.org/mhssn>).
Since the Annual Meeting there have been two conference calls of the Working Group, and trade and health issues were to be discussed at the January meeting of the APHA Executive Board. The number of APHA Sections in the Working Group has grown to five, including Environment and the Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs sections, and additional sections and state affiliates are being contacted to join the effort.
The goals of the Working Group at this moment are to educate the APHA membership on the issue, reach out to and involve more sections, affiliates and individual members, and to have APHA weigh in during the Congressional debates concerning the pending Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) and the many other pacts now in negotiation. Longer-term goals include reaching out to other public health-related organizations for joint legislative and public education efforts.
Three immediate proposals for the 2005 APHA Annual Meeting in New Orleans are to dedicate one of the four large “plenary sessions” on Tuesday morning to the theme of “Public Health Impacts of Trade Agreements;” two back-to-back sessions jointly sponsored by the five Sections on the various aspects of the issue; and an organizational/business meeting of the Working Group open to all interested APHA members.
Any and all interested OHS Section members are invited to join this effort by contacting Garrett Brown (<gdbrown@igc.org>) or Tom Connor (<taoc123@bellsouth.net>). Among the tasks that need volunteers from our Section are:
1) Suggestions for speakers at the large “plenary session” at the 2005 APHA annual meeting;
2) Suggestions or volunteers for the two OHS Section speakers at the jointly sponsored scientific sessions in New Orleans. Linda Delp and Garrett Brown have already agreed to represent the Section, but might be persuaded to step aside if other possible speakers arise.
3) Contacting other APHA sections and state affiliates to involve more APHA members in the issue;
4) Mobilizing OHS Section members to contact Congress about CAFTA and other trade related issues;
5) Outreach to other national and international occupational health associations, such as organizations of industrial hygienists, safety professionals, occ nurses and physicians, epidemiologists and toxicologists, among many others.
There is plenty of work to be done, and this issue is definitely not going away anytime soon. So please do not hesitate to contact Tom Connor or Garrett Brown to get involved!