[Working conditions and common mental disorders among primary health care workers from Botucatu, São Paulo State].

Common mental disorders (CMD) present high prevalence among general populations and workers with important individual and social consequences. This cross-sectional and descriptive study explores the relationship between psychological job demands, job control degree and job support and prevalence of CMD among primary health care workers of Botucatu - SP. The data collection was carried out using an unidentified self-administered questionnaire, with emphasis on items relating to demand-control-support situation and occurrence of CMD (Self Reporting Questionnaire, SRQ-20).

[Cognitive traps: the case of omission in the genesis of work-related accidents].

This article discusses omissions in work-related accidents. The authors present James Reason's concepts on task characteristics which can increase the chance of operator omission. These ideas were applied to three accidents in which worker omission was given as the "cause" and "proof" of victim's guilt.

[Under registration of occupational accidents in São Paulo, Brazil, 1997].

Objectives: To estimate the number of occupational accidents that occurred in a certain municipality during a specific period of time as well as the extent of sub-registration.

Methods: The study sample was comprised of 4.782 households within the municipality of Botucatu, São Paulo occupied by a total 17,219 inhabitants on the 1st of July, 1997.

[Occupational accidents in Botucatu, São Paulo, recorded by the Social Security System from 1995 to 1999].

Unlabelled: This study describes workplace accidents recorded by the Social Security Office in Botucatu, São Paulo, from 1995 to 1999. Related work force information for the same period was obtained from the 8 largest industrial companies in the city. Data were coded and processed electronically.

[Case report of two work accidents investigated using the causal tree method].

In a large company in São Paulo State, two work accidents were investigated using the Causal Tree Method (CTM), leading to the accurate identification of factors related to work organization as the causal factors for the accidents. These cases pointed to the role of organizational factors, such as improvised and temporary assignments to work stations and/or jobs, decisions about the performance of tasks left to unprepared workers, unavailability of proper tools and/or materials, and faulty information distribution within the company. Analysis of the accidents allowed for the presentation and discussion of the method (CTM), its lengthy application, its demands in terms of training, and its potentialities for accident prevention.

Blaming the victim: aspects of the Brazilian case.

This report describes the consequences and some aspects of the origin and development of victim blaming in accident analysis, and some methods for investigating such events, with particular emphasis on the situation in Brazil. In Brazil, the spread of this practice seems to have been helped by several factors. (1) The idea that occupational accidents are simple phenomena with a limited number of causal factors linked to unsafe actions and/or conditions.

Anthropotechnological analysis of industrial accidents in Brazil.

The Brazilian Ministry of Labour has been attempting to modify the norms used to analyse industrial accidents in the country. For this purpose, in 1994 it tried to make compulsory use of the causal tree approach to accident analysis, an approach developed in France during the 1970s, without having previously determined whether it is suitable for use under the industrial safety conditions that prevail in most Brazilian firms. In addition, opposition from Brazilian employers has blocked the proposed changes to the norms.

[Work accidents in Brazil. A study in São Paulo state, Brazil, the Botucatu region, using the causal tree method].

This paper discusses, within the prevailing Brazilian situation, the possibility of applying "causal tree" (CT) method in investigating occupational accidents by safety personnel in the public health services and workers' unions. The method was developed during the seventies in France, for use by plant safety personnel. The authors used this method in Botucatu, state of São Paulo, Brazil, in order to investigate 40 serious occupational accidents that occurred in industrial plants during the second half of 1993, that had been registered by social security.

[Safety assessment of a Brazilian company based on analysis of work accidents by the causal tree method].

We present here the results of a study of 21 work-related accidents that occurred in a Brazilian manufacturing company. The aim was to assess the safety level of the company to improve its work accident prevention policy. In the last 6 months of 1992 and 1993, all accidents resulting in 15 days' absence from work, reported for social security purposes, were analyzed using the INRS causal tree method (ADC) and a questionnaire completed on site.

Does orderly recruitment of motoneurons depend on the existence of different types of motor units?

It has recently been proposed that the recruitment of motoneurons is correlated with their type rather than their size. To test this hypothesis the axonal conduction velocities (CVs) of 92 pairs of soleus motoneurons (all of the same histochemical type) were compared with their recruitment order. By means of spike-triggered averaging it has been shown that in 89 out of 92 pairs of soleus units the motoneuron with the lower CV was recruited first.

[Internship in Public Health at the Faculdade de Medicina de Botucatu].

An experiment in the teaching of public health for interns in the sixth year of medical training was launched in 1978 on the basis of the clinical practice of health services in Botucatu and neighboring municipalities. The course was designed to promote the practice of primary medical care, contacts with the different health professionals, analysis of the relations between health and the social structure, and an understanding of the organization of medical care in Brazil through discussions of day-to-day activities in health services, and of the role of medicine and medical care in the present capitalistic production structure of Brazil. The paper reports on the teaching experiment in 1978 and 1979, when the supervised training was taken by 85 and 95 interns, respectively, in groups of seven or eight for periods of 18 working days at the Botucatu Health Center-School (CSE) and the Anhembi and Itatinga Health Services.