This proposal is the next stage to follow a 4-year multi-disciplinary collaboration in which the project partners determined the priorities of indigenous farm workers with regard to occupational health and safety. Project partners also assisted the community to develop methods to provide job health and safety training and information to indigenous farm workers. A multi-tiered intervention will be tested to determine its effect on biomarkers of pesticide exposure and other health effects. We will study markers of oxidative stress and DMA damage, both believed to be precursors of health conditions such as cancer and neurological disease associated with pesticide exposure. The intervention, which has been developed in indigenous languages and Spanish, will help determine if there is a link between substantively and culturally appropriate training and a drop in the biomarkers that have been suggestive of a prelude to adverse health impacts in agricultural workers. The project will continue its community-based approach by expanding upon its extensive and productive relationships with indigenous farm workers in Oregon, involving trilingual outreach workers from the partnership organizations, and using a peer education approach, supplemented by socio dramas, visual materials, audio materials, and radio broadcasts in indigenous languages and Spanish.
The specific aims that will guide every phase of the research are:
Aim #1 Co-develop, implement, and evaluate with indigenous farm workers a three-part indigenous-language educational/outreach program and materials to improve pesticide safety for indigenous nursery workers using peer educators, videos and CDs/tapes.
Aim #2 Develop and implement a biomonitoring protocol to determine whether improved pesticide safety education can reduce pesticide-induced oxidative stress and its attendant risk of disease.
Aim #3 Disseminate with project partners lessons learned, study results and educational materials to indigenous farm workers and the health and scientific community through farm worker community public forums, peer-reviewed journal articles, presentations at professional conferences and web-based publications.
| Farquhar, Stephanie; de Jesus Gonzalez, Carmen; Hall, Jennifer et al. (2014) Recruiting and retaining indigenous farmworker participants. J Immigr Minor Health 16:1011-5 |
| McCauley, Linda; Runkle, Jennifer D; Samples, Julie et al. (2013) Oregon indigenous farmworkers: results of promotor intervention on pesticide knowledge and organophosphate metabolite levels. J Occup Environ Med 55:1164-70 |
