Occupational Safety Perceptions, Personal Protective Equipment Use, and Injury Experience of Latino Roofers

Construction is one of the most hazardous industries; within construction, roofing is one of the most hazardous trades.  Many roofers are Latino immigrants who have among the highest occupational injury rates in construction.  The aim of this analysis is to delineate the occupational safety perceptions and practices of Latino residential roofers in NC.  Participants included male Latino residential roofers who completed a baseline interview (n=89) and daily logs over one week (n=78).  Participants had worked in roofing an average 7.4 years.  About 60% indicated that they had received some safety training.  Although most participants felt that safety was important to supervisors (86.5%) and that they were regularly made aware of dangerous conditions (79.7%), most also felt that taking risks was part of their job (70.8%), that they would be injured in the next year (83.1%), and that supervisors do not do as much as possible to make their jobs safe (79.5%).  Workers reported using personal protective equipment (PPE), including eye protection, cut-resistant gloves, hard hats, and harnesses, about two-thirds of the time.  Occupational injuries among the workers in the past year were common; 14.6% reported a strain or sprain, 20.2% a cut, 5.6% a burn, and 16.9% a contusion.  Ten percent were currently taking a medication for a work-related injury.  Work safety climate was associated with PPE use and injury.  Greater effort is needed to improve occupational safety among Latino roofers, including better safety training and enforcement of current occupational safety regulations.  Grant U60 OH009761, Project ID 10183