Environmental Health

Workers account for half of the world’s population and their health depends on workplace conditions, health care access, social and individual factors. The International Labour Organization (ILO, 2018), estimates that work-related accidents or illnesses kill about 6000 people every day – or around 2.3 million women and men each year. Committed to the notion that occupational safety and health must improve, especially in vulnerable, lower-income, and underserved communities, the Occupational Safety & Health (OSH) focus area of CIH^LMU was established. First and foremost, it is concerned with capacity building – training and educating people from around the world to improve local working conditions in both the formal and informal sectors.

Many of the activities of OSH at CIH^LMU are located in Latin America where it collaborates with local universities to encourage community engagement, practical problem-solving and research in understudied areas of occupational safety and health. After the successful implementation of blended learning master and diploma programs as well as online modules and face-to-face summer schools and workshops, the OSH activities are currently being updated and redesigned. With the aim of train OSH professionals who wish to acquire basic scientific training as well as healthcare professionals who want to acquire additional qualifications in OSH, individual modules at different levels are developed which can be studied within in a modular approach.