Skip to main content
PMC home page
Environmental Health Perspectives logoLink to Environmental Health Perspectives
. 2002 Apr;110(Suppl 2):233–240. doi: 10.1289/ehp.02110s2233

Pesticide safety among farmworkers: perceived risk and perceived control as factors reflecting environmental justice.

Thomas A Arcury 1, Sara A Quandt 1, Gregory B Russell 1
PMCID: PMC1241168  PMID: 11929733

Abstract

Farmworkers in the United States constitute a population at risk for serious environmental and occupational illness and injury as well as health disparities typically associated with poverty. Pesticides are a major source of occupational injury and illness to which farmworkers are exposed. Efforts to provide safety training for farmworkers have not been fully evaluated. Based on the Health Belief Model, this analysis examines how safety information affects perceived pesticide safety risk and control among farmworkers and how perceived risk and control affect farmworker knowledge and safety behavior. Data are based on interviews conducted in 1999 with 293 farmworkers in eastern North Carolina as part of the Preventing Agricultural Chemical Exposure in North Carolina Farmworkers' Project. Perceived pesticide risk and perceived pesticide control scales were developed from interview items. Analysis of the items and scales showed that farmworkers had fairly high levels of perceived risk from pesticides and perceived control of pesticide safety. Receiving information about pesticide safety (e.g., warning signs) reduced perceived risk and increased perceived control. Pesticide exposure knowledge was strongly related to perceived risk. However, perceived risk had a limited relationship to safety knowledge and was not related to safety behavior. Perceived control was not related to pesticide exposure knowledge, but was strongly related to safety knowledge and safety behavior. A key tenet of environmental justice is that communities must have control over their environment. These results argue that for pesticide safety education to be effective, it must address issues of farmworker control in implementing workplace pesticide safety.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (529.8 KB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Arbuckle T. E., Sever L. E. Pesticide exposures and fetal death: a review of the epidemiologic literature. Crit Rev Toxicol. 1998 May;28(3):229–270. doi: 10.1080/10408449891344218. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Arcury T. A., Austin C. K., Quandt S. A., Saavedra R. Enhancing community participation in intervention research: farmworkers and agricultural chemicals in North Carolina. Health Educ Behav. 1999 Aug;26(4):563–578. doi: 10.1177/109019819902600412. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Arcury T. A., Quandt S. A., Austin C. K., Preisser J., Cabrera L. F. Implementation of EPA's Worker Protection Standard training for agricultural laborers: an evaluation using North Carolina data. Public Health Rep. 1999 Sep-Oct;114(5):459–468. doi: 10.1093/phr/114.5.459. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Arcury T. A., Quandt S. A., Cravey A. J., Elmore R. C., Russell G. B. Farmworker reports of pesticide safety and sanitation in the work environment. Am J Ind Med. 2001 May;39(5):487–498. doi: 10.1002/ajim.1042. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Austin C., Arcury T. A., Quandt S. A., Preisser J. S., Saavedra R. M., Cabrera L. F. Training farmworkers about pesticide safety: issues of control. J Health Care Poor Underserved. 2001 May;12(2):236–249. doi: 10.1353/hpu.2010.0744. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Baer R. D., Penzell D. Research report: susto and pesticide poisoning among Florida farmworkers. Cult Med Psychiatry. 1993 Sep;17(3):321–327. doi: 10.1007/BF01380007. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. García A. M. Occupational exposure to pesticides and congenital malformations: a review of mechanisms, methods, and results. Am J Ind Med. 1998 Mar;33(3):232–240. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Janz N. K., Becker M. H. The Health Belief Model: a decade later. Health Educ Q. 1984 Spring;11(1):1–47. doi: 10.1177/109019818401100101. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Lantz P. M., Dupuis L., Reding D., Krauska M., Lappe K. Peer discussions of cancer among Hispanic migrant farm workers. Public Health Rep. 1994 Jul-Aug;109(4):512–520. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Moses M., Johnson E. S., Anger W. K., Burse V. W., Horstman S. W., Jackson R. J., Lewis R. G., Maddy K. T., McConnell R., Meggs W. J. Environmental equity and pesticide exposure. Toxicol Ind Health. 1993 Sep-Oct;9(5):913–959. doi: 10.1177/074823379300900512. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Moses M. Pesticide-related health problems and farmworkers. AAOHN J. 1989 Mar;37(3):115–130. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Myers J. R., Hard D. L. Work-related fatalities in the agricultural production and services sectors, 1980-1989. Am J Ind Med. 1995 Jan;27(1):51–63. doi: 10.1002/ajim.4700270106. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Olshan A. F., Faustman E. M. Male-mediated developmental toxicity. Annu Rev Public Health. 1993;14:159–181. doi: 10.1146/annurev.pu.14.050193.001111. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Quandt S. A., Arcury T. A., Austin C. K., Cabrera L. F. Preventing occupational exposure to pesticides: using participatory research with latino farmworkers to develop an intervention. J Immigr Health. 2001 Apr;3(2):85–96. doi: 10.1023/A:1009513916713. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Rust G. S. Health status of migrant farmworkers: a literature review and commentary. Am J Public Health. 1990 Oct;80(10):1213–1217. doi: 10.2105/ajph.80.10.1213. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Savitz D. A., Arbuckle T., Kaczor D., Curtis K. M. Male pesticide exposure and pregnancy outcome. Am J Epidemiol. 1997 Dec 15;146(12):1025–1036. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a009231. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Slesinger D. P. Health status and needs of migrant farm workers in the United States: a literature review. J Rural Health. 1992 Summer;8(3):227–234. doi: 10.1111/j.1748-0361.1992.tb00356.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Vaughan E. Chronic exposure to an environmental hazard: risk perceptions and self-protective behavior. Health Psychol. 1993 Jan;12(1):74–85. doi: 10.1037//0278-6133.12.1.74. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Villarejo D., Baron S. L. The occupational health status of hired farm workers. Occup Med. 1999 Jul-Sep;14(3):613–635. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Zahm S. H., Blair A. Cancer among migrant and seasonal farmworkers: an epidemiologic review and research agenda. Am J Ind Med. 1993 Dec;24(6):753–766. doi: 10.1002/ajim.4700240612. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Zahm S. H., Ward M. H., Blair A. Pesticides and cancer. Occup Med. 1997 Apr-Jun;12(2):269–289. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Environmental Health Perspectives are provided here courtesy of National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

RESOURCES