Os bastidores da produção de fogos de artifício em Santo Antônio do Monte: degradação das condições de trabalho e saúde dos pirotecnistas

A cidade de Santo Antônio do Monte é considerada o 2º maior polo mundial de produção de fogos de artifício, sendo a pirotecnia a principal atividade econômica da região. Entretanto, o trabalho na indústria pirotécnica tem suscitado sérias preocupações das entidades sindicais e dos pesquisadores, bem como dos trabalhadores e suas famílias. Os acidentes de trabalho nesse setor são, geralmente, fatais ou mutilantes, havendo, ainda, registros de doenças relacionadas ao trabalho. Por isso, neste estudo almejou-se analisar as repercussões do processo de produção de fogos de artifício sobre a saúde e segurança desses trabalhadores. Os estudos da Psicopatologia do Trabalho e da tradição francesa de análise ergonômica constituíram as principais referências deste estudo. Para a realização desta pesquisa, utilizou-se uma estratégia metodológica pluridimensional, que reuniu e articulou dados estatísticos, empíricos (fatos clínicos, relatos, observações) e documentais. Os resultados revelam que os trabalhadores estão sujeitos a acidentes decorrentes do exercício de funções para as quais não foram adequadamente treinados, bem como a uma atividade penosa e nociva, geradora de lesões por esforço repetitivo (LERs) e doenças osteomusculares relacionadas ao trabalho. As mulheres que trabalham nesse setor também enfrentam o assédio sexual praticado por prepostos dos empregadores.The town of Santo Antonio do Monte is deemed to be the 2nd largest center of fireworks production in the world, and pyrotechnics is the region's main economic activity. However, the work in the pyrotechnic industry has raised serious concerns from labor unions and researchers, as well as the workers and their families. Labor accidents in this sector are usually fatal or mutilating, and there're also reports of labor-related diseases. Thus, this study aimed to analyze the repercussions of the fireworks production process on these workers' health and safety. Studies on the Psychopathology of Work and those based on the French tradition of ergonomic analysis provided the main references for this study. To carry out this research, we used a pluridimensional methodological strategy, which gathered and connected statistical, empirical (clinical facts, reports, observations), and documental data. The results show that workers are exposed to accidents resulting from the performance of jobs for which they haven't been properly trained, as well as to a painful and harmful activity, which causes repetitive strain injuries (RSIs) and workrelated musculoskeletal diseases. Women who work in this sector also face sexual harassment practiced by their employer's representatives

A list of land plants of Parque Nacional do Caparaó, Brazil, highlights the presence of sampling gaps within this protected area

Brazilian protected areas are essential for plant conservation in the Atlantic Forest domain, one of the 36 global biodiversity hotspots. A major challenge for improving conservation actions is to know the plant richness, protected by these areas. Online databases offer an accessible way to build plant species lists and to provide relevant information about biodiversity. A list of land plants of “Parque Nacional do Caparaó” (PNC) was previously built using online databases and published on the website "Catálogo de Plantas das Unidades de Conservação do Brasil." Here, we provide and discuss additional information about plant species richness, endemism and conservation in the PNC that could not be included in the List. We documented 1,791 species of land plants as occurring in PNC, of which 63 are cited as threatened (CR, EN or VU) by the Brazilian National Red List, seven as data deficient (DD) and five as priorities for conservation. Fifity-one species were possible new ocurrences for ES and MG states

Tuberculosis: integrated studies for a complex disease 2050

Tuberculosis (TB) has been a disease for centuries with various challenges [1]. Like other places where challenges and opportunities come together, TB challenges were the inspiration for the scientific community to mobilize different groups for the purpose of interest. For example, with the emergence of drug resistance, there has been a huge volume of research on the discovery of new medicines and drug delivery methods and the repurposing of old drugs [2, 3]. Moreover, to enhance the capacity to detect TB cases, studies have sought diagnostics and biomarkers, with much hope recently expressed in the direction of point-of-care tests [4]. Despite all such efforts as being highlighted in 50 Chapters of this volume, we are still writing about TB and thinking about how to fight this old disease–implying that the problem of TB might be complex, so calling the need for an integrated science to deal with multiple dimensions in a simultaneous and effective manner. We are not the first one; there have been proposed integrated platform for TB research, integrated prevention services, integrated models for drug screening, integrated imaging protocol, integrated understanding of the disease pathogenesis, integrated control models, integrated mapping of the genome of the pathogen, etc. [5–12], to name some. These integrated jobs date back decades ago. So, a question arises: why is there a disease named TB yet? It might be due to the fact that this integration has happened to a scale that is not global, and so TB remains to be a problem, especially in resource-limited settings. Hope Tuberculosis: Integrated Studies for a Complex Disease helps to globalize the integrated science of TB.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Characterisation of microbial attack on archaeological bone

As part of an EU funded project to investigate the factors influencing bone preservation in the archaeological record, more than 250 bones from 41 archaeological sites in five countries spanning four climatic regions were studied for diagenetic alteration. Sites were selected to cover a range of environmental conditions and archaeological contexts. Microscopic and physical (mercury intrusion porosimetry) analyses of these bones revealed that the majority (68%) had suffered microbial attack. Furthermore, significant differences were found between animal and human bone in both the state of preservation and the type of microbial attack present. These differences in preservation might result from differences in early taphonomy of the bones. © 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved