pesticide safety among migrant farm workers
TRANSCRIPT
Pesticide Safety among Migrant Farm Workers
Overview
Brief background on migrant farm workers in Canada/ Ontario
Brief background on OHCOW’s Migrant Farm Worker Program
Pesticide safety concerns identified by migrant farm workers
Our focus on broadening and deepening our understanding through worker consultation sessions and strategies.
What were our main findings
Work we have engaged in to address areas of concern
Remaining gaps and areas of needed focus
Group discussion
Learning objectives
To identify some pesticide related concerns being brought forward by migrant farm workers.
Identify strategies to better understand concerns
Identify strategies towards addressing concerns
Identify some key considerations when developing educational handouts/ resources around pesticide safety for migrant farm workers.
McLaughlin 2009
Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers (OHCOW)
First clinic founded in 1989
Our Mission The mission of the Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers
Inc.(OHCOW) is: to protect workers and their communities from
occupational disease, injuries and illnesses; to support their capacity
to address occupational hazards; and to promote the social, mental
and physical well-being of workers and their families.
We also work directly with employers to support their health
and safety programs on farms through our no charge resources and services.
OHCOW’s multi-disciplinary teams, housed in 6 clinics across the province.
Migrant Farm Workers and Occupational Health and Safety: Recognizing the need for an outreach program
High hazard industry
Precarious nature of employment and established fear
of jeopardizing their work status
Socio-economic and demographic character of this worker population
Limited access to health system
Unfamiliarity and limited access to occupational health and safety system, MOL or WSIB
Migrant Farm Workers and Occupational Health and Safety: Recognizing the need for an outreach program
Health and safety training for this group sporadic, or inappropriate.
Programs and resources not effectively addressing language, literacy, cultural considerations, or worker intimidation to raise concerns.
Experience and needs of this worker group largely not reflected in industry focused programs and strategies or in evaluations of the effectiveness of interventions.
Experiences and needs of these workers slow to be reflected in local service programs and resources.
OHCOW’s MFW program team
Murray Lawrence (Occupational Hygienist)
Michelle Tew (Occupational Health Nurse)
Curtis VanderGriendt (Ergonomist)
Michael Pysklywec (Occupational Health Physician)
Donald Cole (Occupational Health Physician)
Willem van Heiningen (Physician)
Mary Falconer (Occupational Health Nurse)–now retired
OHCOW MFW Clinics
In collaboration with community partners
Time and location accessible to workers.
Collaboration with primary health clinics
Supported successful LHIN funding request to establish two CHC run migrant farm worker clinics (Simcoe, Niagara).
Provide occupational health support to these clinics.
Prevention based workshops
Eye Health and Safety Workshop
Resources and Tools Identify and develop useful
resources and tools that take into consideration language, literacy and culturally appropriateness.
Distribute these resources extensively and directly to migrant farm worker communities.
Distribute relevant resources directly to employers.
Share resources with primary health clinics.
Pesticide exposures and safety concerns identified among migrant farm workers
During clinical engagement
During community outreach and workshop sessions
Increasing our understanding through outreach and worker consultation
Brought up the issues of pesticide concerns and exposures to farm workers.
Specific pesticide related worker consultations
Increasing our understanding through drawing from clinical questionnaire data
Hygiene specific questions included in our clinic questionnaire.
Questions around washing and drying machine accessibility, hand washing resources nearby, whether workers were sprayers.
Outreach and Consultation Strategies
Began as open ended conversation with workers regarding pesticides.
More focused questionnaire developed out of identifying trends and high incidents.
Insights on this process
• Importance of addressing confidentiality needs
• Transparency as to the use of feedback
• Working through hesitation to speak about concerns
• Balance between open ended conversation and more pointed questions.
• Recognizing the time commitment and insights of workers
Our main findings (worker concerns)
Some identified symptoms they are relating to pesticide exposure.
ANXIETY. Not knowing what is being sprayed at their workplace, not being informed about safety precautions. Not part of the conversation on the farm.
Not receiving training, including a few who take on mixing and spraying roles.
Pesticide drift
Our main findings (worker concerns)
Most workers having access to washing machines and dryers, some do not, some having to share among a large number of workers.
Some workers did not have access to hand washing resources.
Curious about the use/ need for PPE among fieldworkers. Gloves/ masks. Not receiving information on whether these are an option for them.
Not knowing what to do in the case of exposure incidents.
Intimidation around the idea of ‘reporting’.
Situating these concerns within Canadian/ Ontario pesticide regulation context Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA)
• The pest Control Products Act • Determines product does not pose an unacceptable risk to
plants, animals, the environment or public health. • Maximum Residue Limits (MRL) • Regulation on spraying schedules • Setting No-Entry Intervals • Collecting and evaluating incident reports
Situating these concerns within Canadian/ Ontario pesticide regulation context Ontario Pesticide Education Program (OPEP) • Develops and implements mandatory Grower Pesticide Safety Course (Every 5 years)
• Training for Farmer Assistants (every 5 years)
• Develops educational course guides, handouts, posters on pesticide safety with a focus on mixers and sprayers.
Our main findings (regulation/ education gaps)
Regulatory system largely focuses on mixers, loaders and sprayers.
Pesticide education programs largely focuses on mixers, loaders and sprayers.
OPEP farmer assistant training was not being offered in Spanish.
Assumption that if pesticides are being used correctly, if No-Entry Intervals are followed, then residue levels should not be dangerous, so not much attention placed on field worker safety.
There is limited recognition of the barriers faced by migrant farm workers to report pesticide incidents, so worker concerns largely not considered in evaluation processes/ systems.
Our main findings (regulation/ education gaps)
Many workers have limited access to primary health services, so symptoms and exposures not systematically seen or reported by medical system.
Reporting is not widely on the radar of health service providers.
There is no systemic recommendations regarding PPE that reaches the ‘worker’/ non-sprayer level.
Interventions
Education and training on pesticide safety
Collaborated with OPEP to train 5 Spanish speaking on-farm instructors located in regions of high worker numbers to train Spanish speaking farm assistants.
In the process of confirming the development of a pesticide training course for field workers/ non-sprayers.
Interventions
Incorporating worker concerns into mandatory employer training
Collaborating with OPEP to incorporate messaging around worker concerns into mandatory employer pesticide training.
Focused on instructing employers to share pesticide information and precautions being taken with field workers/ non-sprayers as part of due diligence and towards overall health and safety at the workplace.
Reviewing the importance of having proper laundering facilities available to workers.
Reminding employers that they should provide clear instructions to workers around pesticide drift situations.
Interventions
Pesticide safety evaluation for field workers/ non-sprayers
Pressuring for an evaluation on field-worker pesticide safety by PMRA with a focus on establishing clear guidelines for developing a better understanding of exposure incidents involving migrant farm workers, and recognizing and working towards addressing intimidation to report by workers.
Pressuring for clear evaluation of the need or recommendation of PPE for field-workers / non sprayers.
Pressuring for materials to better understand pesticide symptoms, for clinicians, workers and employers.
Interventions
Working with health care providers to identify their role
Working with CHC and other clinics serving migrant farm workers to support them in better understanding pesticide exposure symptoms, treatment and intervention, and to identify their role in reporting pesticide incidents and trends.
Engaging in discussion as to how their reporting role recognize workers concerns of reprisals.
Interventions
Organizing ourselves for a more rigorous and formalized pesticide issues assessment
formalizing our assessment
Utilizing our clinical questionnaire to focus in on particular questions, accumulate more data, worker feedback, ideas and concerns.
Interventions
Improving the accessibility of pre-existing pesticide safety educational materials
Translated and reformatted a pesticide safety poster series developed by OPEP.
Hoping to partner with OPEP on the development of field worker/ non-sprayer resources.
Interventions
Evaluating pesticide safety materials developed for migrant farm workers
Conducted two evaluation activities of PMRA’s pesticide safety poster for migrant farm workers. Migrant farm workers provided their feedback on poster messaging, what they understood and how to improve the resource.
PMRA open to receive this evaluation. Hoping it will lead to more collaboration and consideration.
Some findings of Poster Evaluation
This poster’s messaging is far from clear for the majority of farm workers we consulted.
Though the majority of people recognized the poster was trying to communicate safety messaging, the specific messages were unclear to many.
Suggestion that this poster needs to be ‘presented’ to people and then can stand alone as a message reminder poster.
PMRA does not specify instructions as to how this poster is to be delivered.
Suggestion that poster should maybe just focus on a few messages at a time , be part of a poster series.
Practical feedback on image choices and alternatives.
Inroads
Continuing gaps and limitations
Discussion
Eduardo Huesca [email protected]
OHCOW Hamilton Clinic 848 Main Street East, Hamilton Ontario Canada 1877.817.0336 ext. 2221 or 2223
www.Ohcow.on.ca/mfw