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Biomedical subjects

R Belmar

Publications and source records attributed to R Belmar.

10 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1994

[Primary health care and community participation: strategic approaches].

This article gives technical orientation to health institutions for the promotion of community participation and sets forth the challenge of constructing a health system for Chile, according to the needs and problems of the country and based on the principles of solidarity, equity and social participation. It presents the governmental objectives and actions towards the development of social participation as an axis of Primary Care. The adoption of this concept requires a change in health teams internal management and relationship with the local community. The formation of interdisciplinary work groups, the formulation of a community health program, a work based in specific projects and the establishment of an operational sequence are suggested as requirements to start this process.

Chile↗
PubMed1981

Mercury poisoning in Nicaragua: a case study of the export of environmental and occupational health hazards by a multinational corporation.

Pennwalt Inc., a multinational chemical and pharmaceutical firm based in the United States, operates a chloralkali plant in Managua, Nicaragua. This plant utilizes elemental mercury in the production of chlorine and caustic soda for markets throughout Central America. The plant was recently found to be contaminating the waters of Lake Managua (on which the plant is located) with 2 to 4 tons of inorganic mercury effluent per year-over 40 tons in the 13-year history of the plant. Examination of the 152 workers employed in the plant showed that 56(37 percent) were suffering symptoms and signs of mercury poisoning, including tremors (in 45), memory and attention deficits (in 45) and paresthesias (in 52). Levels of airborne mercury vapor in the plant were found to range as high as 600 microgram/m3. (The airborne standard set by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration is 100 microgram/m3.) Workers in the plant had never been alerted to the hazards of mercury. The plant was found to be in deteriorated condition, with no recent investments in maintenance or modern safety equipment. It is reported that the parent corporation, Pennwalt, has been withdrawing capital from the operation (and from Nicaragua) since the fall of the Somoza regime.

Air Pollutants, Occupational↗
PubMed1975

An international perspective on strikes and strike threats by physicians: the case of Chile.

The program for health services developed by the government of Dr. Salvador Allende Gossens in Chile is outlined, as well as its early effects. A review of this development is necessary to an understanding of the systematic opposition of the organized medical profession to this program in particular, and to the broad socialist goals of the government in general. Three periods of activity by the medical profession are traced, beginning in September 1970 and culminating in September 1973 with the military coup and overthrow of the democratically elected government of Chile and the murder of its president, a physician. While the medical profession was opposed to the government program for community participation in health care and to changes in the models for delivery of care, and feared a changed status for the physician, clearly there were broader political links between the organized medical profession and the political opponents of the government which sought its overthrow.

Adolescent↗