Fields of Peril: Child Labor in U.S. Agriculture

In this 99-page report, Human Rights Watch found that child farmworkers risked their safety, health, and education on commercial farms across the United States. For the report, Human Rights Watch interviewed 59 children under age 18 who had worked as farmworkers in 14 states in various regions of the United States.

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Dangerous Exposure: Farmworker Children and Pesticides

Children of farmworkers bear a disproportionate burden of health effects from pesticide use in our country. Birth defects, neurological complications, respiratory illness, and cancers have all been linked by peer-reviewed research to pesticide exposure in children. This publication reviews research found on the effects of pesticides on these four areas related to children’s health. The information compiled here is a tool for consumers, policy-makers, health and safety trainers, advocates, those who serve farmworkers, and those who benefit daily from their hard work.

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Prenatal Exposure to Organophosphate Pesticides and IQ in 7-Year Old Children

Three independent investigations published online April 21 ahead of print in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP) have reached similar conclusions, associating prenatal exposure to organophosphate (OP) pesticides with IQ deficits in school-age children. The fact that three research groups reached such similar conclusions independently adds considerable support to the validity of the findings.

Farmworkers, including pregnant women, are routinely exposed to organophosphate pesticides.

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Housing Conditions in Temporary Labor Camps for Migrant Farmworkers in North Carolina

Housing standards for temporary labor camps are not being adequately enforced. This brief documents a large number of violations of housing standards. These violations pose hazards to residents’ health. Housing violations were more common during the middle and late agricultural season and in non-H2A camps and large camps. Possible explanations include: 1) housing exceeds the capacity for which it is certified, 2) employers fail to properly maintain facilities after inspection, and 3) inspections are prioritized for H2A camps.

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Biomarkers of Farmworker Pesticide Exposure in North Carolina

This policy brief documents farmworker pesticide exposure during the 2007 agricultural season in North Carolina. Based on these results, we present recommendations to improve safety and sanitation conditions for farmworkers. Urine samples were collected by Wake Forest University School of Medicine investigators from 284 farmworkers at monthly intervals during the period of May through August 2007. A total of 939 urine samples were provided by farmworkers and analyzed for pesticide urinary metabolites by the National Center for Environmental Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta.

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Meeting the Requirements for Occupational Safety and Sanitation for Migrant Farmworkers in North Carolina

This policy brief describes migrant farmworker experiences with components of the US-EPA Worker Protection Standard and the OSHA safety and sanitation regulations. Based on these results, we present recommendations to improve safety and sanitation conditions for farmworkers. Information for this policy brief is based on data collected by Wake Forest University School of Medicine investigators from 255 migrant farmworkers who were interviewed at monthly intervals from May through August 2007.

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Weeding out abuses: Recommendations for a law-abiding farm labor system

This report describes the employment laws that apply to farmworkers and the widespread violations of those laws by agricultural employers. Because the human faces of those who suffer these abuses are often lost in the statistics, this report tells the personal stories of several men and women who pick our fruits and vegetables; these accounts are not merely anecdotes but are representative of the reality.

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Illnesses and Injuries Reported by Latino Poultry Workers in Western North Carolina

Poultry processing workers have some of the highest occupational injury rates of all U.S. industries. In 2004, close to 20,000 poultry workers nationwide reported occupational injuries or illnesses severe enough to miss work or seek medical care, for a rate of 7.8 per 100 full-time workers.

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Repeated Pesticide Exposure Among North Carolina Migrant and Seasonal Farmworkers

Migrant and seasonal farmworker occupational exposure to pesticides is widely acknowledged, and this occupational pesticide exposure is considered an important health risk for farmworkers and their families. However, no published biomarker data document the number or percent of US farmworkers exposed to pesticides.

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Overcoming Language and Literacy Barriers in Safety and Health Training of Agricultural Workers

The workforce in all areas of United States agriculture and forestry is becoming increasingly diverse in language, culture, and education. Many agricultural workers are immigrants who have limited English language skills and limited educational attainment. Providing safety and health training to this large, diverse, dispersed, and often transient population of workers is challenging.

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Depressive Symptoms Among Latino Farmworkers Across the Agricultural Season: Structural and Situational Influences

Immigrant Latino farmworkers confront multiple challenges that threaten their mental health. Previous farmworker mental health research has relied primarily on cross-sectional study designs, leaving little opportunity to describe how farmworker mental health changes or to identify factors that may contribute to these changes.

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Job Demands and Pesticide Exposure Among Immigrant Latino Farmworkers

The goal of this study was to understand the potential threat of job stressors to farmworker health. To accomplish this goal we studied pesticide exposure, an issue with immediate and long-term health consequences, and predictions from the Demands-Control model of occupational stress.

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Close to Slavery: Guestworker Programs in the United States

Unlike U.S. citizens, guestworkers do not enjoy the most fundamental protection of a competitive labor market — the ability to change jobs if they are mistreated. Instead, they are bound to the employers who “import” them. If guestworkers complain about abuses, they face deportation, blacklisting or other retaliation.

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