Health care for gas station workers: a report about the implementation of a health surveillance program and a worker embracement strategy in Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil

Abstract Introduction: the Regional Reference Center in Occupational Health (Cerest) and the Health Surveillance Department of the city of Campinas, along with the State Benzene Commission (São Paulo) and the Regional Benzene Commission (Campinas), developed the Gas Station Attendant Project, from 2005 to 2012, aiming at establishing a health care program for gas station workers in the city of Campinas. Objective: to report the project development and its results and to evaluate the practice of workers embracement as a strategy of action. Methods: the project was developed in stages, starting with a situational diagnosis and the preparation and establishment of a health care protocol for gas station attendants. A pilot project covering 10 gas stations and 136 attendants was carried out between February 2009 and October 2010. Results: the project identified working conditions resulting in benzene exposure risks and health problems which might be related to it. Conclusion: the workers’ high commitment to the project endorsed the adopted strategies. This experience may be used to subsidize the establishment of specific protocols by branch of work activity as a health surveillance strategy.