Why should occupational health be a concern of local government?

Road sides, public markets, homes and landfill sites – all are sites where informal workers work and all are sites that mark an unexamined intersection between urban health and safety and occupational health and safety. Occupational health and safety is generally confined to national level labour institutions, and informal work sites usually fall under municipal health regulation – which is often insufficient to protect the health and safety of informal workers. Moreover, while municipalities play a crucial role in the regulation of many informal urban workplaces, urban health regulations as they exist at present in many countries do not recognize the needs of workers to earn a living in urban spaces and can often actively work against that need.

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