Farmworker and Farmer Perceptions of Farmworker Agricultural Chemical Exposure in North Carolina

Abstract

Agricultural chemicals pose health risks for farmworkers engaged in cultivating and harvesting crops. In a project to develop culturally appropriate interventions to reduce farmworker exposure to agricultural chemicals, formative research used in-depth interviews and focus groups to elicit beliefs and knowledge about exposure from farmers and migrant and seasonal farmworkers in North Carolina. Farmworkers were concerned about acute effects they attributed to exposure and had little knowledge of long-term effects of low-level exposure. They believe that some individuals are inherently more susceptibility to the health effects of exposure than others; most do not recognize the skin as a site of chemical absorption. They report instances of exposure that reflect the power relationships with farmers, indicating that lack of knowledge is not the only issue that must be addressed in an intervention. Farmers believe that farmworkers are not exposed to chemicals because they do not mix or apply chemicals. Such a belief is consistent with the training received by farmers. The PRECEDE-PROCEED planning model is used to identify predisposing and reinforcing factors on which an effective intervention should focus.