School of Public Health and Community Medicine - University of Washington - Aut 2008

Cedar block cutter on Olympic Peninsula, Washington.
Photo by Lesley Hoare.

Even while employers and occupational health trainers strive to adequately equip and communicate information about health and safety to workers, the changing demographic of who makes up the workforce creates new challenges.

At the November 2008 "Health and Safety in Western Agriculture— New Paths" conference, keynote speaker, Professor Matt Keifer, spoke about the "new travelers" to the Pacific Northwest, drawn here by the availability of seasonal jobs and the responsibility to families left behind in their respective countries.

In Western Washington, nearly 23% of farmworkers identified themselves as Indigenous Mexican, according to the Washington State Farmworker Housing Trust’s report published in July 2008. And on the Northwest Olympic Peninsula, it is roughly estimated that 55–65% of the forest product workers who gather salal and cut blocks out of salvage cedar stumps are Indigenous Guatemalan and Indigenous Mexican, as reflected in a community-based research project that includes interaction with local workers. There are at least four different indigenous languages spoken in this area.

Researchers, public health agencies, and employers seek solutions to work with, train, and protect this population from occupational hazards. Using community-based participatory research (CBPR) and with the help of promotores, UW researchers are working with underserved populations to better understand and overcome barriers such as language and cultural differences.

Characteristic of CBPR is the active involvement of the research team, study participants, and their advocates. The needs of the community are not only collectively recognized, but the aims of the research include interventions designed to address those needs and improve the health of the population. Research Coordinator Lesley Hoare and graduate student Joseph Campe spoke at the New Paths conference about a project led by Keifer that uses CBPR with forest product worker communities to identify and address occupational work hazards and sustainable harvest issues.

Promotores are community health workers, peer educators, or community health representatives who are often key to reaching and building trust between traditionally underserved populations and the health care system. In order to translate educational principles, culturally appropriate messages are used, and promotores often serve as the best means of delivering those messages.

HEAT-RELATED ILLNESS

According to a written statement by the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries (L&I), health-related illness caused the deaths of three workers in the past three years and the filing of 580 workers’ claims between 1995 and 2007. In order to better protect workers, L&I filed a new permanent workplace rule (effective July 5, 2008), which requires training about heat stress or heat-related illness to "be provided to employees and supervisors, in a language the employee or supervisor understands, prior to outdoor work."

Helen Murphy, Director of Outreach and Education at our Pacific Northwest Agricultural Safety and Health (PNASH) Center, has worked with promotores to develop innovative training strategies for workers and employers to learn about heat-related illnesses, such as novelas (short soap operas) broadcast in Spanish on a local radio station. Murphy led a discussion at the New Paths conference to discuss cultural barriers that may prevent workers from adequately protecting themselves and to brainstorm practical solutions. These solutions included culturally appropriate training, delivering training through community-based organizations and promotores who understand how best to address these cultural barriers, and working with local radio stations to offer public service announcements on heat-related illnesses in Spanish.

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