The health of pyrotechnic workers: a case study

Abstract

This article presents a case study regarding the pyrotechnic worker’s health in Santo Antônio do Monte, Minas Gerais, Brazil, a town whose economy is dominated by the fireworks industry, something which favors a domination structure on workers and the local population. The pyrotechnic worker’s suffering involves factors such as unstable work relations, permanent risk of sudden accident, physical and psychic work overload, among others. The text is primarily grounded in Foucault’s contributions on power relations and work psychodynamics. Data collection was based on participant observation, field notes, and semi-structured interviews with 16 subjects, including workers and other social actors related to the town’s economy and management. The analysis of this health and illness reality should not be reduced to individual psychopathology, since its genesis is noticeably psychosocial. The study revealed that the pyrotechnic mono-production hinders the possibilities of getting other jobs and making other professional choices, except for “rifeiros”, whose business, however, takes place out of town. This scenario weakens the political organization, inside and outside the walls of fireworks factories, undermining resistance actions taken by workers and the town’s population as a whole.