Providing health and safety education for low literacy Spanish-speaking agricultural pesticide applicators in Washington state

APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Flor Servin, BA, Pesticide Management Division, State of Washington Dept. of Agriculture, 1505 N. Miller St., Suite 140, Wenatchee, WA 98801, 509-662-0590, Fservin@agr.wa.gov

In 1997, the Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) identified unlicensed Spanish-speaking pesticide applicators as workers with the highest risk for pesticide exposure and with less pesticide safety training opportunities. Lacking English skills, and often illiterate, some farmworkers are unable to pass the exam to become licensed applicators, leaving them out of the pesticide training scope. To help solve the problem, WSDA has adapted and re-designed a pesticide training program—The Hands-on Training for Pesticide Handlers Program, originally developed by UC-Davis—involving extensive hands-on to effectively educate unlicensed applicators in the hazards of agricultural pesticide use in Washington State. The Hands-on curriculum is modified on a yearly basis in order to respond to new exposure findings and imparted by community leaders in conjunction with Spanish-speaking state employees The training meets Worker Protection Standard training requirements and highlights the selection and use of personal protective equipment, cleanup and decontamination, and safety methods for mixing/loading and drift prevention.

Challenges of this program include identifying and recruiting trainees, communicating effectively with a low literacy population, assuring that training is effective and relevant, and maintaining the industry support. Benefits of the program include not just improved safety for the applicators, but also improved health of their families through prevention of carrying home pesticides on clothing.

Learning Objectives:

At the conclusion of this program, the participant in this session will be able to

1.Identify the health and safety hazards related to pesticides of underserved, low literacy farmworkers.
2.Recognize the challenges of training this population.
3.Describe a training program that addresses the hazards related to pesticide use through verbal and hands-on methods.
4.List the benefits to workers and their families of this training.

Keywords: Occupational Health, Agricultural Work Safety

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Empowering Underserved Workers through Occupational Health and Safety Training

The 134th Annual Meeting & Exposition (November 4-8, 2006) of APHA