[Exhibit-conference in Italy: Health education at the work place]

An "exhibit-conference" was held at the University of Rome (November 1982) to review the teaching material used in connection with the prevention of occupational diseases and safety measures at the workplace. The Italian model calls for the workers' direct participation in all questions related to their health. At first, workers were simply taught how to avoid certain gestures which might cause an accident. More recently, multinational firms have used more sophisticated criteria, based on new scientific disciplines such as ergonomics. The environment, nowadays, is being taken into account and the legislation is becoming more specific. In this context, new teaching techniques are being developed based on the dramatization of potential situations. Trade Unions have also created their own material based on a common language to address workers and technicians, a collective method of analysis of the environment of the workplace, a behavioural methodology to tackle priorities. One hundred thousand copies of a course published in Turin, in 1969, by the metal workers' union have been distributed. The course has a twofold merit: it is operational and the workers play a prominent role in analysing situations and in advising how working conditions can be transformed. In small workshops, in agriculture and in services most workers are not given any information on how to protect their health.