A Healthy Dose of Culture Equals An Ounce of Prevention:
Using Ethnography to Inform Intervention Design
for Mexican Immigrant Farmworkers
Shedra Amy Snipes, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Biobehavioral Health
Penn State
Prevention Research Center Presentation
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Abstract
Agricultural pesticides are the only chemicals released in occupational
settings with the sole purpose of inflicting harm upon living organisms.
Although Mexican immigrant farmworkers are not the target of pesticides,
they are nonetheless harmed. The development of tools to reduce pesticide
exposures among farmworkers is critical. Yet, intervention efforts to date
show only limited success in increasing self protective behaviors. Barriers to
farmworker saftey are consistent: 1) safety training is sometimes challenged
by farmworkers' immigrant status, acculturation and socio-cultural
knowledge, 2) safety equipment is uncomfortable, difficult to use and slows
the speed of work, and 3) availability of clean water for hand-washing
is lacking. While these barriers are repeatedly cited as necessary factors to
increase pesticide safety -- no real solutions to such barriers exist. To this
end, this presentation will review ideas to develop a pesticide safety
intervention designed to overcome barriers to workplace safety among
Mexican immigrant farmworkers. We will use ethnographic findings of Dr.
Shedra Amy Snipes' first-hand accounts working as a migrant farmworker to
identify ways to overcome barriers. Second, each audience member will take
on the imagined role as an immigrant farmworker to spur ideas of how to
involve workers to act as problem solvers.
This presentation will be a fun, interactive way to review how ethnography
can be used to inform practical solutions to health and safety barriers among
worker populations. Further, this presentation will help promote application
of novel research tools that can be used with vulnerable, minority
populations that endure disproportionate health risk.