title: Informal occupational safety information exchange among Latino migrant and seasonal farmworkers.
abstract: Latino farmworkers in North Carolina are a hard-to-reach population that faces diverse occupational health risks, including pesticide exposure. Health and safety education efforts often employ lay health advisor or promotor(a) de salud models in which farmworker community members are trained to provide health education. As a frequently tight-knit and isolated group, farmworkers may be well suited to serve as resident lay health advisors. This paper presents data collected from a nonrandom sample of Latino farmworkers living in North Carolina regarding the natural level of occupational safety information exchange among Latino farmworkers, specifically pesticide safety information. The data affirm that farmworkers informally exchange occupational safety information with one another, with the level of exchange increasing during the agricultural season. Consequently, if trained, the data suggest that farmworkers might be situated to provide in situ occupational health and safety education to their peers. This remains to be systematically tested and evaluated.
authors.affiliation: Department of Family and Community Medicine, and the Center for Worker Health, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina 27157, USA.
authors.forename: Chaya R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Spears
authors.forename: Phillip Y
authors.initials: PY
authors.lastname: Summers
authors.forename: Kevin M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Spencer
authors.forename: Thomas A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Arcury
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003625:Data Collection; D006266:Health Education; D063025:Health Information Management / Q000379:methods; D006630:Hispanic or Latino; D006801:Humans; D009657:North Carolina; D016273:Occupational Exposure; D016272:Occupational Health / Q000193:education; D010575:Pesticides / Q000009:adverse effects; D012621:Seasons; D014171:Transients and Migrants
chemical_list: D010575:Pesticides