The CHAMACOS study is a longitudinal birth cohort study examining chemicals and other factors in the environment and children's health.
In 1999-2000, CHAMACOS enrolled 601 pregnant women living in the agircultural Salinas Valley. They are following their children through age 12 to measure their exposures to pesticides and other chemicals and to determine if this exposure impacts their growth, health, and development.
Despite ongoing concern about pesticide exposure of farmworkers and their families, relatively few studies have tried to directly test the association of behavioral and environmental factors with pesticide exposure in this population. This study seeks to identify factors potentially associated with pesticide exposure among farmworkers; grade the evidence in the peer-reviewed literature for such associations; and propose a minimum set of measures necessary to understand farmworker risk for pesticide exposure. From: Environmental Health Perspectives
Print, cut, and distribute this handy bookmark to providers who treat migrant and seasonal farmworker patients. The bookmark includes links and a qr code to connect you to pesticide - related clinical tools and resources. In addition, we've included some useful phone numbers in case of a pesticide emergency.
You can also use the bookmark to keep handy the Health Network phone number to be sure your patients on the move remain in care.
This colorful bilingual comic addresses workers' compensation and immigrant dairy farm workers’ rights and responsibilities. It tells the story of a Mexican dairy farm worker who is injured on the job and the steps he and his employer take to make sure he receives his benefits, and the farm improves its safety.
The resources listed below are available from the National Immigration Law Center’s website, www.nilc.org. Each of them is subject to being updated or otherwise revised as new developments warrant. The documents available from the links provided here may be downloaded by individual readers and either printed out or viewed electronically, but electronic copies of the documents MAY NOT BE UPLOADED TO ANY WEBSITE other than NILC’s.
These resources from the Health Insurance Marketplace can be used to help direct clients to information about the Affordable Care Act.
This resource summarizes key points to bring up with your patients who have questions about ACA.
This resource from the Health Insurance Marketplace and the Health Services and Resources Administration provides a concise summary of key points that clinicians need to know about ACA.
Families Talking Together (FTT) is an evidence based program designed to help Latino parents better communicate with their children and teens about healthy relationships, sex, contraceptive use, and preventing pregnancy. Dr. Vincent Guilamo-Ramos, the creator of the program and co-director of the Center for Latino Adolescent and Family Health at New York University’s Silver School of Social work, along with Planned Parenthood Los Angeles and Visión y Compromiso, recently enlisted 25 promotores (community health workers) from three communities in California with high rates of teen pregnancy and high percentages of Latinos in an effort to help Latino parents address teen pregnancy. Over a four-day period, the 25 promotores were trained to deliver the FTT intervention. In the next two months, the promotores will deliver the intervention to 250 families in California. The National Campaign wishes to recognize and thank Dr. Guilamo-Ramos, PPLA, and Visión y Compromiso for their work on this innovative and important project.
The FTT intervention—both the community health worker curriculum and parent materials---are available online, free of charge.
A report prepared by researchers at The George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services features a wealth of information on occupational health and safety and the migrant population, from farmworkers to fast-food chain employees to restaurant cooks and servers.
News release:
http://defendingscience.org/news/labor-day-looking-back-year-us-occupational-health-and-safety
Dramatic, visual and culturally relevant, fotonovelas are a successful means of communicating health information. The following fotonovela materials are downloadable.
Provided by Farmworker Justice
Dramatic, visual and culturally relevant, fotonovelas are a successful means of communicating health information. The following fotonovela materials are downloadable.
Provided by Farmworker Justice
Dramatic, visual and culturally relevant, fotonovelas are a successful means of communicating health information. The following fotonovela materials are downloadable.
Provided by Farmworker Justice
Two high-production value, Spanish radio public service announcements(PSAs) to promote HIV testing services at local agencies. One PSA targets men and the other women. Each PSA features a blank space for you to record your organization’s contact information. Provided by Farmworker Justice
This webinar is the sixth in a series of seven in our Clinician Orienatation to Migration Health.
DATE RECORDED: Wednesday, July 17, 2013
PRESENTED BY: Candace Kugel, FNP, CNM, Specialist in Clinical Systems & Women's Health and Melissa Bailey, Executive Director of North Carolina Field, Inc.
To view the recorded version of this webinar, click here.
Geoffrey M. Calvert, Walter A. Alarcon, Ann Chelminski,Mark S. Crowley, Rosanna Barrett, Adolfo Correa, SheilaHiggins, Hugo L. Leon, Jane Correia, Alan Becker,Ruth H. Allen and Elizabeth Evans
doi:10.1289/ehp.9647 (available at http://dx.doi.org/) Online 21 February 2007
Introduction
In August of 2005, the North Carolina Division of Public Health, Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology Branch (OEEB) was notified that three women who had worked on farms in North Carolina owned by Ag-Mart had delivered infants with birth defects. All three births took place in Florida where the women also worked on Ag-Mart farms and lived near each other. This report summarizes the OEEB’s investigation and assessment of the pesticide exposures likely experienced by these women while in North Carolina.
The Diabetes and Healthy Eyes Toolkit provides community health workers with tools to inform people with diabetes about diabetic eye disease and maintaining healthy vision. The toolkit has a flipchart that is easy to use in community settings and can be incorporated into existing diabetes classes or information sessions. It is available in English andSpanish.
California Poison Control System developed an online game that focuses on poison prevention through the use of "look-a-like" pills and candy. There are other resources on the site. The game is available as an app on itunes and in the android marketplace. Search for 'Choose your Poison.'
This website and training material were developed to give communities and promotores ways to help farm workers learn how to protect themselves from pesticide exposure.
The project and all materials on the website were developed by the California Poison Control System in collaboration with the the Western Center for Agricultural Health and Safety at the University of California, Davis and the California Department of Pesticide Regulation.
Sherry L. Baron, MD, MPH, Sharon Beard, MS, Letitia K. Davis, ScD, EdM, Linda Delp, PhD, MPH, Linda Forst, MD, MPH, Andrea Kidd-Taylor, PHD, Amy K. Liebman, MPA, MA, Laura Linnan, ScD, Laura Punnett, ScD, and Laura S. Welch, MD
Background: Nearly one of every three workers in the United States is low-income. Low-income populations have a lower life expectancy and greater rates of chronic diseases compared to those with higher incomes. Low- income workers face hazards in their workplaces as well as in their communities. Developing integrated public health programs that address these combined health hazards, especially the interaction of occupational and non-occupational risk factors, can promote greater health equity.
Methods: We apply a social-ecological perspective in considering ways to improve the health of the low-income working population through integrated health protection and health promotion programs initiated in four different settings: the worksite, state and local health departments, community health centers, and community-based organizations.
Results: Examples of successful approaches to developing integrated programs are presented in each of these settings. These examples illustrate several complementary venues for public health programs that consider the complex interplay between work related and non work-related factors, that integrate health protection with health promotion and that are delivered at multiple levels to improve health for low-income workers.
Conclusions: Whether at the workplace or in the community, employers, workers, labor and community advocates, in partnership with public health practitioners, can deliver comprehensive and integrated health protection and health promotion programs. Recommendations for improved research, training, and coordination among health departments, health practitioners, worksites and community organizations are proposed.
Carlos Eduardo Siqueira, MD, ScD, Megan Gaydos, MPH, Celeste Monforton, Dr PH, MPH, Craig Slatin, ScD, MPH, Liz Borkowski, BA, Peter Dooley, MS, CIH, CSP, Amy Liebman, MPA, MA, Erica Rosenberg, JD, Glenn Shor, PhD, MPP, and Matthew Keifer, MD, MPH
Background This article introduces some key labor, economic, and social policies that historically and currently impact occupational health disparities in the United States.
Methods We conducted a broad review of the peer-reviewed and gray literature on the effects of social, economic, and labor policies on occupational health disparities.
Results Many populations such as tipped workers, public employees, immigrant workers, and misclassified workers are not protected by current laws and policies, including worker’s compensation or Occupational Safety and Health Administration enforcement of standards. Local and state initiatives, such as living wage laws and community benefit agreements, as well as multiagency law enforcement contribute to reducing occupational health disparities.
Conclusions There is a need to build coalitions and collaborations to command the resources necessary to identify, and then reduce and eliminate occupational disparities by establishing healthy, safe, and just work for all.
Sara A. Quandt, PhD, Kristen L. Kucera, PhD, Courtney Haynes, MS, Bradley G. Klein, PhD, Ricky Langley, MD, Michael Agnew, PhD, Jeffrey L. Levin, MD, Timothy Howard, PhD, and Maury A. Nussbaum, PhD
Background Workers in the Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries (AgFF) sector experience exposures directly related to the work itself, as well as the physical environment in which the work occurs. Health outcomes vary from immediate to delayed, and from acute to chronic.
Methods We reviewed existing literature on the health outcomes of work in the AgFF sector and identified areas where further research is needed to understand the impact of these exposures on immigrant Latino workers in the southeastern US.
Results Outcomes related to specific body systems (e.g., musculoskeletal, respiratory) as well as particular exposure sources (e.g., pesticides, noise) were reviewed. The most extensive evidence exists for agriculture, with a particular focus on chemical exposures. Little research in the southeastern US has examined health outcomes of exposures of immigrant workers in forestry or fisheries.
Conclusion As the AgFF labor force includes a growing number of Latino immigrants, more research is needed to characterize a broad range of exposures and health outcomes experienced by this population, particularly in forestry and fisheries.
Arthur L. Frank, MD, PhD, Amy K. Liebman, MPH, MA, Bobbi Ryder, BA, Maria Weir, MAA, MPH, and Thomas A. Arcury, PhD
Background The Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishery (AgFF) Sector workforce in theUS is comprised primarily of Latino immigrants. Health care access for these workersis limited and increases health disparities.
Methods This article addresses health care access for immigrant workers in the AgFF Sector, and the workforce providing care to these workers.
Contents Immigrant workers bear a disproportionate burden of poverty and ill health and additionally face significant occupational hazards. AgFF laborers largely are uninsured, ineligible for benefits, and unable to afford health services. The new Affordable Care Act will likely not benefit such individuals. Community and Migrant Health Centers (C/MHCs) are the frontline of health care access for immigrant AgFF workers.C/MHCs offer discounted health services that are tailored to meet the special needs of their underserved clientele. C/MHCs struggle, however, with a shortage of primary care providers and staff prepared to treat occupational illness and injury among AgFF workers. A number of programs across the US aim to increase the number of primary care physicians and care givers trained in occupational health at C/MHCs. While such programs are beneficial, substantial action is needed at the national level to strengthen and expand the C/MHC system and to establish widely Medical Home models and Accountable Care Organizations. System-wide policy changes alone have the potential to reduce and eliminate the rampant health disparities experienced by the immigrant workers who sustain the vital Agricultural, Forestry, and Fishery sector in the US. Am. J. Ind. Med.
By Amy K. Liebman, MPA, MA, Melinda F. Wiggins, MTS, Clermont Fraser, JD, Jeffrey Levin, MD, MSPH, Jill Sidebottom, PhD, and Thomas A. Arcury, PhD
Background Immigrant workers make up an important portion of the hired workforce inthe Agricultural, Forestry and Fishing (AgFF) sector, one of the most hazardous industrysectors in the US. Despite the inherent dangers associated with this sector, workerprotection is limited.
Methods This article describes the current occupational health and safety policies andregulatory standards in theAgFF sector and underscores the regulatory exceptions and limitationsin worker protections. Immigration policies and their effects on worker health and safety arealso discussed. Emphasis is placed on policies and practices in the Southeastern US.
Results Worker protection in the AgFF sector is limited. Regulatory protections are generallyweaker than other industrial sectors and enforcement of existing regulations is woefullyinadequate. The vulnerability of the AgFF workforce is magnified by worker immigrationstatus. Agricultural workers in particular are affected by a long history of “exceptionalism”under the law as many regulatory protections specifically exclude this workforce.
Conclusions A vulnerable workforce and high-hazard industries require regulatoryprotections that, at a minimum, are provided to workers in other industries. A systematicpolicy approach to strengthen occupational safety and health in the AgFF sector mustaddress both immigration policy and worker protection regulations.
CDC’s US-Mexico Unit (USMU) works to prevent the spread of infectious disease across borders and improve and promote the health of travelers, migrants, and other mobile border and binational populations. USMU’s main activities include collaborating on the US-Mexico Binational Technical Working Group, overseeing the operation of the Binational Border Infectious Disease Surveillance Program (BIDS), migrant health and binational tuberculosis programs, and international regulatory responsibilities. Their website on US-Mexico health provides a brief overview of the public health issues unique to the border region, our key partners, the guidelines for cooperation, and a resources page complete with health education/communication resources and publications.
To learn more, please visit http://www.cdc.gov/USMexicoHealth/index.html and check back for updates and a Spanish mirror site which should launch this summer.
The West Virginia Rural Health Research Center (WVRHRC) pursues a multi-disciplinary research effort directed to improve environmental health for rural populations. Collaborators from public health, geographic information systems, nursing, pharmacy, environmental science, health policy and other disciplines work together to conduct policy-relevant research to achieve this goal.