1.1 - Pollution and Impact on Health

Toxic waste is generating serious health problems in Latin America, according to the Pan-American Health Organisation (PAHO). In the past, major hazardous waste problems resided in industrialized countries but transnationals have now set up in developing countries due to cheap labour, the lack of controls on social and environmental impacts, abundant natural resources and a favourable political and economic climate for foreign investment. These transnationals are responsible for a host of ecological disasters.

All over Latin America there are high levels of ground contamination by heavy metals and pesticides in mining areas and farmlands. Similarly, in rivers like the Amazon, which cuts across Peru and Brazil, the levels of mercury contamination have totally surpassed acceptable levels. Industrialized nations are responsible for exporting polluting materials, particularly those produced by the petrochemical industry, to Latin America and another issue is the development of technologies in Latin American countries which are no longer utilized in more developed areas.

Mexico and Brazil, for example, now have the technology to produce pesticides which are no longer made in industrialized countries because of environmental concerns, and sell them to other developing nations. Mexico is one of only three countries that still produces DDT. 30% of pesticides sold by transnationals to developing countries are banned in industrialized countries.

1.2 - Deteriorating Health Care Systems

In the 1980s, economic globalisation led to profound changes in many developing countries, including extensive social policy reforms. The IMF and the World Bank encouraged reduction in public spending, often tying this requirement to debt relief. In Latin America, budget cutbacks in the public sector have opened the door for increased private sector activity in health care.

The provision of health care services has deteriorated all over Latin America as a result. The World Bank has, for several years, encouraged and funded the involvement of US-managed care companies in Latin America, despite the recognised failures of managed care in the States. This has prompted protests and strikes all over Latin America.

In El Salvador health care workers held a nine-month long strike in 2003 against the health care privatisation scheme of President Francisco Flores. Flores was forced to accept a plan for national health care reform that includes representatives of all sectors of Salvadoran society, including the workers and their trade unions.

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