pesticide safety among migrant farm workers

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Pesticide Safety among Migrant Farm Workers

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Page 1: Pesticide Safety among Migrant Farm Workers

Pesticide Safety among Migrant Farm Workers

Page 2: 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

Page 3: Pesticide Safety among Migrant Farm Workers

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.

Page 4: Pesticide Safety among Migrant Farm Workers

McLaughlin 2009

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Page 6: Pesticide Safety among Migrant Farm Workers
Page 7: Pesticide Safety among Migrant Farm Workers

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.

Page 8: Pesticide Safety among Migrant Farm Workers

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

Page 9: Pesticide Safety among Migrant Farm Workers

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.

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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

Page 11: Pesticide Safety among Migrant Farm Workers

OHCOW MFW Clinics

In collaboration with community partners

Time and location accessible to workers.

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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.

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Prevention based workshops

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Eye Health and Safety Workshop

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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.

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Pesticide exposures and safety concerns identified among migrant farm workers

During clinical engagement

During community outreach and workshop sessions

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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

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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.

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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

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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

Page 22: Pesticide Safety among Migrant Farm Workers

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’.

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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

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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.

Page 25: Pesticide Safety among Migrant Farm Workers

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.

Page 26: Pesticide Safety among Migrant Farm Workers

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.

Page 27: Pesticide Safety among Migrant Farm Workers

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Inroads

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Continuing gaps and limitations

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Discussion

Page 39: Pesticide Safety among Migrant Farm Workers

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