Citation

Kearney GD, Rodriguez G, Quandt SA, Arcury JT, Arcury TA. Am. J. Public Health 2015; 105(7): 1336-1343.

Affiliation

Gregory D. Kearney is with the Department of Public Health, Brody School of Medicine, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC. Guadalupe Rodriguez and Thomas A. Arcury are with the Department of Family and Community Medicine, Center for Worker Health, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC. Sara A. Quandt is with the Department of Epidemiology and Prevention, Division of Public Health Sciences and Community Medicine, Center for Worker Health, Wake Forest School of Medicine. Justin T. Arcury is a statistical consultant in Raleigh, NC.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, American Public Health Association)

DOI

10.2105/AJPH.2014.302519

PMID

25973817

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: The aims of this project were to describe the work safety climate and the association between occupational safety behaviors and injuries among hired youth farmworkers in North Carolina (n = 87).

METHODS: We conducted personal interviews among a cross-sectional sample of youth farmworkers aged 10 to 17 years.

RESULTS: The majority of youths reported that work safety practices were very important to management, yet 38% stated that supervisors were only interested in "doing the job quickly and cheaply." Few youths reported appropriate work safety behavior, and 14% experienced an injury within the past 12 months. In bivariate analysis, perceptions of work safety climate were significantly associated with pesticide exposure risk factors for rewearing wet shoes (P = .01), wet clothes (P = .01), and shorts (P = .03).

CONCLUSIONS: Youth farmworkers perceived their work safety climate as being poor. Although additional research is needed to support these findings, these results strengthen the need to increase employer awareness to improve the safety climate for protecting youth farmworkers from harmful exposures and injuries. (Am J Public Health. Published online ahead of print May 14, 2015: e1-e8. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2014.302519).

Language: en