- The first National Network of Health Laboratories of the IMSS has units in Mexico City, Jalisco, Nuevo León and Veracruz.
- These spaces are responsible for ensuring that all tests and analyzes are carried out in accordance with established standards and protocols.
- According to the WHO, occupational diseases cause more than 2 million deaths per year.
The Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) launched the National Network of Occupational and Environmental Health Laboratories. In this first stage, four spaces located in Mexico City, Jalisco, Nuevo León and Veracruz were inaugurated. All have the equipment and infrastructure to carry out and process environmental samples such as solvents, metals and particulate matter (dust) in air for preventive studies on exposure to polluting chemical agents in the work environment.
In addition, in these laboratories, biological determinations of heavy metals and biomarkers are carried out in the activities of biological monitoring of exposure to hazardous chemical substances.
During the opening ceremony, the Dr. Mauricio Hernandez Aviladirector of Economic and Social Benefits of the IMSS, pointed out that these laboratories are a key element in the evaluation of the risks of exposure of workers, to seek to control or eliminate them.
IMSS now has Health Laboratories
He explained that the National Network of Occupational and Environmental Health Laboratories is integrated with units located in the IMSS representations in Jalisco, Nuevo León, South Veracruz and South Mexico City. The Central Laboratory is located in the latter, and they have equipment and qualified personnel to carry out analytical determinations in support of the ruling on occupational diseases carried out by occupational medicine specialists.
Hernández Ávila expressed that in these spaces one has the responsibility of ensure that all tests and analyzes are performed in accordance with established standards and protocols. Which means keeping accurate records, proper procedures and ensuring all equipment is calibrated.
This is the first step to recover the laboratories, the Decentralized Administrative Operation Bodies will have regional responsibility in the North, West, Southeast and Center of the country.
He recalled that in 1965 the first of these laboratories was created at the IMSS and in 1976 the integration of three others was authorized. Unfortunately budgets were cut. However, in March 2021 a re-engineering and remodeling process began, in which an international tender for the re-equipment was carried out.
What will the IMSS Health Laboratories help for?
In turn, the head of the Coordination of Health at Work, Dr. Rebeca Velasco Reynapointed out that when inaugurating these laboratories, the importance indicated by the World Health Organization (WHO)that occupational diseases cause more than 2 million deaths a year and that 374 million non-fatal work-related injuries occur annually, at a cost of 3.94 of global GDP.
He stressed that in order to recognize the damage to health by generation in the workplace, the table of occupational diseases and the evaluation of disabilities in the workplace have been updated. Federal Labor Lawin which 88 new diseases were incorporated, with a majority of diagnoses of work-related cancer due to the handling of chemical substances, since they went from 4 to the 30 that are presented today.
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