Occupational health hazards among Latino/a immigrant workers in Baltimore: The influence of gender, occupational status, and migration

This presentation describes an occupational health needs assessment to identify the knowledge of occupational health hazards and barriers that impede the protection of Latino/a immigrants' health and safety in the workplace. In addition to the influence of immigration status, we are particularly interested in differences according to gender and the types of labor. This work represents a partnership between university and workers' center leaders, with the intent of developing programs at a workers' center in Baltimore, MD. Baltimore, a “new destination” for Latino immigrants, lacks baseline data regarding Latinos' health and working conditions. There is also an invisibility of female immigrants and non-Mexican Latinos in the occupational health literature. Procedures include four focus groups (n=20) and 10 key informant interviews. Inclusion criteria are: 1) being at least 18 years old; 2) self-identifying as Latino/a immigrant; and 3) working in Baltimore for the past three months. Key informants are knowledgeable leaders in immigrant labor issues. The focus group protocol and an interview guide developed by the academic and community partners query Latino/a immigrants' jobs, awareness of work hazards, illnesses/injuries at work, and their experiences reporting and seeking care for work illnesses/injuries. We report the results of thematic analyses of the focus group and interview transcripts. We also report on differences between gender, occupational status in their sender country, and the types of hazards that Latino/a immigrants face. Of interest are the differences between men and women in rates of seeking care for work injuries and the driving forces. We are concerned that Latino immigrants receive limited occupational health and safety information and protection because of their immigrant status. This work expands knowledge of occupational hazards for Latino immigrants and provides information to shape local interventions and policies.