Textbook of Maritime Medicine

The International Labour Organization was founded in 1919 to pursue a vision based on the premise that universal, lasting peace can be established only if it is based upon decent treatment of working people. The ILO bacme the firste specialized agency of the UN in 1946.

The ILO’s vision of decent work is essential to all activities of the organization. The ILO call itself “the only ‘tripartite’ United Nations agency”, bringing together representatives for governments, employers and workers to jointly shape policies and programmes[1]

 4.2.1   ILO Conventions[2]

 LO is a very important stakeholder in maritime medicine. The conventions from this UN agency has lead to improved living and working conditions and improved health for seafarers all over the world. The organization  

The organization is responsible for a number of international standards and conventions, dealing with working and living conditions for seafarers, most of them replaced by or summed up in the new Maritime Labour Convention (MLC) of 2006.  The MLC  is looked upon as one of the fourth pillars of maritime conventions, together with the SOLAS, the MARPOL and the STCW Conventions. 

ILO’s conventions constitutes a long list. The number cannot be given exactly, as it will vary, depending of whether or not one will include fishermen, maritime pilots and dock workers in the maritime setting. The conventions revised by the Maritime Labour Convention 2006, numbers 37 in total. See chapter 5.

4.2.2   ILO Recommendations[3] 

In addition to all the conventions, the ILO list of recommendations is even longer. Nearly 200 recommendations have been given up to this day (2009) on different fields, many of them concerning seafaring.

4.2.3   ILO Guidelines[4]

The guidelines given by ILO includes Guidelines for port state control officers carrying out inspections under the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC) ,Guidelines for flag State Inspections under the MLC, Compendium of Maritime Labour Instruments, Uniform Identity Documents for Seaferes, Safety in Health Ports, the ILO code of practice, among others.

The Guidelines for Conducting Pre-sea and Periodic Medical Examinations of Seafarers is anchored in the ILO Conventions

 4.2.4   ILO Library[5]

The ILO online Library contains important information, i.a. the CISDOC which is a specialized seeking engine for getting information about occupational health and safety issues, not only in the maritime sector. It also contains the Encyclopedia of Occupational Health and Safety – a comprehensive online textbook free of use to everybody, as well as the International Chemical Safety Cards (ICSCs), the updated list of all conventions, and the updated list of all ILO Codes of Practice. This is an important source for information for all health professionals working in the field of maritime medicine. The Encyclopedia is also possible to buy in hardcopy, and is widely distributed and used, in several languages.

4.2.5   International Committee on Seafarers’ Welfare (ICSW)[6]

ICSW is an international umbrella organization dedicated to the practical implementation of the ILO instruments on Seafarers Welfare Convention 163 and Recommendation 173.

It is a voluntary organization established for the purpose of bringing together appropriate interests in the field of seafarers’ welfare and thus provides a forum for information exchange as well as for the coordination of projects on the care of seafarers.

One of the more important fields of activitiy of ICSW, it she SHIP project – Seafarers’ Health Information Programme[7]. This programme has published and distributed a number of leaflets on different topics like Food Safety, Fit on Board, Safe Travel, Healthy Food, Malaria, Overweight, STI, HIV/Aids, Mental Care, Dental Care, Skin Care.

Another project is the “International Sport for Seafarers (ISS)”[8].  The objective is to create international understanding and co-operation between seafarers of all nations through peaceful competitions in health sport activities.

IMO Statistics show that 80% of accidents onboard cargo ships are related to the “Human Factor”, which is significantly affected by the fitness and health of seafarers as summarized in the slogan “A FIT SEAFERER = A SAFER SHIP”.

The Seven Seas League has series for Basketball, Footbal, Table Tennis and Volleyball. Tournaments are held in dedicated ports and results are listed on their website.

In this way the ISS contributes to physically and mentally fit seafarers, improve their health, and contributes to a safer ship.

[1] http://www.ilo.org/global/About_the_ILO/lang--en/index.htm

[2] http://www.ilo.org/ilolex/cgi-lex/pqconv01.pl?host=status01&textbase=iloeng&chspec=30&hitdirection=1&hitstart=0&hitsrange=1500&highlight=on&context=&query=%23status%3D01&chspec=1&query0=&query1=&query2=&year=&title=&query3=%23status%3D01&sortmacro=sortconv&submit=Submit+query

[3] http://www.ilo.org/ilolex/english/recdisp1.htm

[4] http://www.ilo.org/global/What_we_do/InternationalLabourStandards/InformationResources/Publications/lang--en/index.htm

[5] http://www.ilo.org/public/english/support/lib/resource/safety.htm   

[6] http://www.seafarerswelfare.org/

[7] http://www.seafarershealth.org/

[8] http://www.seafarerssport.org/index.html