The Chamber of Deputies unanimously approved to increase from 161 to 194 the suffering of the table of occupational diseases, a catalog that had not been updated for half a century. Among other ills, he acknowledges that 26 types of cancer —such as breast cancer—, depression, endometriosis and recurrent miscarriages can be caused by employment.
The project was built in the federal government and proposals from legislators in the same sense were added to it. With this, articles 512, 514 and 515 of the Federal Labor Law (LFT) are reformed. The bill went to the Senate for review.
“On average, in Mexico there are 513,000 work hazards per year which consist of accidents at work, accidents on the way and occupational diseases”, explained the president of the Labor and Social Welfare Commission, Manuel Baldenebro (Morena).
“All the voices were heard, the proposals of all the benches and civil associations. Which led to an opinion unanimously approved ”, he added from the rostrum when presenting the reform project.
By accepting that these diseases are generated by work, those who develop them have the right to a paid disabilitywhether temporary, partial or permanent, and compensation.
“Approving this opinion means propping up the series of labor reforms of great depth that we have approved in this Fourth Transformation, such as that of the outsourcingthe recognition of domestic workers, the regulations on teleworking and the increase in vacations,” said the legislator.
The reform included some of the mental conditions common and increasingly present among the population, such as anxiety disorder and others more associated with stress, also known as burnout.
They also included some damage caused by breathing in pollutants, as well as muscle and joint injuries common in an increasingly digital world, such as carpal tunnel syndrome.
Another major change is that it retrieves and modifies the valuation table. This instrument is used by specialists to calculate the severity of the damage and the amount of compensation or pension to which the affected person is entitled.
The reform, “based on scientific evidence”, considers the effects on the workers’ health “caused by risk factors” physical, chemical, biological, ergonomic and psychosocial in the workplace, is specified in the opinion.
Reviewed every five years
The world lives differently, it works differently and, therefore, we get sick differently. In the last 53 years, DNA was sequenced, the cell phone appeared and we became dependent on it and the Internet, but the table of occupational diseases it continued without change.
In 2019, a multidisciplinary team led by Cointa Lagunes Cruz, director of Occupational Safety and Health Standardization of the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare (STPS), began a scientific investigation to support the inclusion of each of these conditions.
The last time it was updated was in 1970, after it was included in the LFT of 1931. The six-year terms of Luis Echeverría, José López Portillo, Miguel de la Madrid, Carlos Salinas, Ernesto Zedillo, Vicente Fox, Felipe Calderón passed and Enrique Peña and the table maintained the same 161 pathologies.
Therefore, this time, the STPS proposed that the list be reviewed at least every five years, or when there are studies and investigations that justify it. This was established in article 514 of the LFT.
With the modification to article 513,000, the STPS will be the institution responsible for updating the disease and assessment tables. And it will be the person who heads the federal Executive who initiates the legislative process to modify them.
Some of the incorporated diseases
When updating the table, they created 11 groups of conditions. The one that refers to occupational cancers was the one that had the most updates, since it went from four to 30 types of carcinomas.
In group IV are the mental disorderssuch as anxiety, insomnia, depression and stress-related disorders. These conditions can occur in any worker and position, but the table highlights that health, education, transportation, industrial diving, user service, public safety, armed forces, disaster and emergency care personnel, from the private and public sectors They could be more exposed.
Meanwhile, “the group of infectious and parasitic pathologies it went from 21 to 41”. Among them is the covid-19, whose risk of exposure for workers will be measured at four levels, from the lowest to the very high. This also includes avian flu and influenza AH5N1
Several eye diseasessuch as cataracts, conjunctivitis, mild and moderate impairment of vision and glaucoma, can be considered as work consequences.
It recognizes the aplastic anemiawhich is when the body stops making enough new blood cells and affects those who work in publishing and printing, scrap metal mining, radiation therapy, and oil refining.
In addition, people who manufacture pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and perfumes, or who are engaged in fumigation and pest control, in the pharmaceutical industry can generate hypertension and ischemic heart diseaseindicates the initiative.
Likewise, it will be an occupational disease chronic peripheral venous insufficiency, caused by standing for a long time or walking a lot. This is suffered by people who worked as cashiers, postmen or purses, ground transportation drivers, waiters, police officers, health personnel, and security guards.
The legislation will also incorporate allergic lung diseases and dermatitis. It is recognized that working people such as drivers, delivery girls, waitresses, professional athletes and those who work in non-ergonomic forced positions, can develop conditions in the spine, carpal tunnel syndrome. shoulder tendonitis
