The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Abstract #39278

Yorghos Apostolopoulos, PhD, Department of Sociology, Arizona State University, P.O. Box 872101, 321 Social Sciences Bldg, Tempe, AZ 85287-2101, 480-965-0070, yorghos@asu.edu and Sevil Sonmez, PhD, Department of Recreation Management and Tourism, Arizona State University, P.O. Box 874905, Tempe, AZ 85287-4905.

Notwithstanding the links between the transportation sector and disease propagation in developing areas of the world, health repercussions associated with long-haul truckers in the U.S. have received scant attention. Our ongoing work has documented the existence of wide-ranging risk networks of truckers, comprised of a gamut of diverse populations such as U.S. sex workers (i.e., "lot lizards," "traveling ladies," CB prostitutes), Mexican brothel workers, MSM (i.e., "truck chasers," buffaloes"), drug dealers, "intermediaries" (i.e., pimps, "polishers, "lumpers"), and so forth. Among these groups, extensive substance misuse and often-unprotected sexual encounters comprised prevalent patterns.

This paper focuses on the sexual exchanges among cross-border risk networks of American long-haul truckers and Mexican brothel workers as well as other locally based risk contacts, and it delves into their role in the acquisition and dissemination of sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections.

Ethnographies disclose the existence of long-standing risk networks, where seemingly legitimate American businesses transport undisclosed numbers of truckers to precarious brothels across the Mexican border under the guise of short-duration van tours. Truckers, transport businesses, brothel employees, sex workers, and their risk contacts revealed extensive risk networks. The delineation of cross-border trucker risk networks acquires further significance especially because truckers bridge populations and geographic regions with considerable structural equivalence within brothels, truckstops, and other highway milieux, thereby facilitating disease transmission through the replication of such social contexts.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant will be able to

• Identify public health repercussions associated with trucker risk networks.
• Understand the magnitude of the diverse and often interconnected risk groups of trucker networks as well as their risk contacts and exchanges and to recognize the critical role of cross-border prostitution in disease transmission.

Keywords: Network Analysis, Population

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.