Ángel Ostos – This May 3 was the 19th anniversary of the death of Emigdio Cañizales Guédez, pioneer of occupational medicine in Venezuela and an exemplary communist militant.
Cañizales Guédez was born on October 22, 1922, in Chejendé, Trujillo state [west Venezuela]. From a very young age he showed qualities as a student leader, writer and historian. In 1939, he was admitted to the Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV). He obtained his medical degree from the University of Salamanca, Spain, in 1954 and two years later, his certificate in Public and Industrial Health at the Royal Institute of Public Health and Hygiene in London, becoming the first Venezuelan physician to specialize in occupational health. In addition, he trained as a war physician during the national liberation struggle of the Vietnamese people.
His contributions to occupational health in Venezuela are indisputable: Not only did he create the Chair of Occupational Medicine at the Faculty of Medicine of the Central University of Venezuela (UCV), but also founded different institutions such as the Venezuelan Society of Occupational Medicine, the Venezuelan Society of Public Health and the Venezuelan Society of Clinical Toxicology.
He coordinated the Presidential Commission on Occupational Risks and proposed articulation between different ministries to advance in the materialization of a national plan for the development of occupational health. In the 1980s, as an alternate deputy of the former Congress, he was the main legal drafter of the Organic Law of Prevention, Conditions and Working Environment (Lopcymat). This law allowed for the creation of the National Institute of Prevention, Health and Safety at Work (Inpsasel) on August 17, 2002.
Emigdio Cañizales Guédez, as a Marxist, could only conceive occupational health in a scientific, humanistic and integral manner, in which the workers are the primary element. His vision integrated occupational health and hygiene with working conditions, social security, risk management and occupational safety training. Under this scheme, constant medical examinations, provision of uniforms, nutrition, and medicines were as necessary as psychological assistance, as well as compensation for high-risk working conditions.
Today, it is more than necessary to remember Cañizales Guedes’ contributions when capitalism pretends to unload the weight of its crises on the shoulders of the working class, particularly due to the destruction of social security in the country and the boom -not only in Venezuela but in the world- of occupational accidents and occupational diseases.
The national Institute of Prevention, Health and Labour Security (Inpsasel) refuses to enforce the Lopcymat; the prevention/workplace delegates suffer constant labor harassment, their rights are not respected and in many cases their job security is not respected either. Workers are subjected to demotions, flexibility and work stress. In the public sector this is aggravated by persecution and threats.
Workers who suffer illnesses or accidents at work face severe delays when requesting their disability certificates; there is also no social benefits fund that would allow them to solve their problems in the short term. Never in the history of Venezuela has there been such a marked difference between the real wage and the nominal wage. In this scenario, the recovery of social security in the country is an imperative for the ongoing labor and union struggles.
Tribuna Popular 