Participatory approaches to assessing agricultural safety and health hazards among Hmong farmers: A pilot study

OBJECTIVE:  Refugees are increasingly being resettled throughout the U.S., and, engaging in small-scale, family-owned farm operations.  Farming in new environments with limited training and resources to address safety and health hazards, refugee farm workers may be susceptible to disparate rates of agricultural-related injury and illness.  This pilot project specifically assessed safety and health issues among Hmong refugees, a growing population, working on small-scale farms.

METHODS:  Participatory approaches (participatory rural appraisal and photovoice) were used complementarily to conduct a qualitative occupational hazard assessment with a group of Hmong farmers (n=11) in Washington State.  Throughout the course of a growing season, focus group style data and photographs were collected to identify priority farming safety and health hazards as determined by participants themselves.

RESULTS:  A number of identified problems were related to musculoskeletal disorders, handling and operating heavy machinery, heat and cold stress, respiratory exposures, pest management, and socio-economic and language concerns.

CONCLUSION:  Findings from this study provide insight into the work-related challenges that Hmong refugee farmers encounter, and can serve as a basis for occupational health professionals to develop interventions to assist this underserved group.  Additionally, utilizing novel participatory research approaches showed some promise in obtaining participants’ own perspectives about priority concerns.  Moreover, this project directly addresses goals delineated by NIOSH’s National Occupational Research Agenda for Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing (2008).