 | The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
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| The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
Lisa Goldman, MPH, Brenda Eskenazi, PhD, Asa Bradman, PhD, and Nick Jewell, PhD. Center for Children's Environmental Health Research, University of California, Berkeley, 2150 Shattuck Ave, Suite 600, Berkeley, CA 94720, (510) 642-9545, lgoldman@popcouncil.org.mx
Background: Family members of farmworkers are at risk for pesticide exposure through the take-home pesticide exposure route. Identifying the behaviors which put farmworkers and their families at risk for exposure, and the socio-demographic characteristics of those at greatest risk will inform interventions to reduce take-home pesticide exposure.
Methods: The data for this analysis were collected as part of the CHAMACOS (Center for the Health Assessment of Mothers and Children of Salinas) study, a prospective cohort study of the potential health consequences of pesticide and allergen exposures to pregnant women and children living in the Salinas Valley, Monterey County, California. The analysis is restricted to 153 farmworking women and 248 women who resided with at least one farmworker but were not farmworkers themselves. We analyzed eight behaviors potentially related to take-home pesticide exposure including handwashing, bathing, wearing protective clothing, washing work clothes and regular clothes together, cleaning the home, eating produce directly from the fields, wearing work shoes in the home, and wearing work clothes in the home. We also combined the behaviors into an eight-point scale.
Results: Households where pregnant women are farmworkers do not appear to be taking extra precautions compared to households where pregnant women are not farmworkers. There were few socio-economic differences between women who engaged in risky behaviors and those that did not. Those women with the riskiest behavior lived in the US longer and had fewer children.
Conclusions: Interventions to reduce take-home pesticide exposure for low-income pregnant women who live in agricultural areas are needed.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Immigrant Women, Pesticide Exposure
Related Web page: www.chamacos.org
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.