The Association Between Skin Rashes and Work Environment, Personal Protective Equipment, and Hygiene Practices Among Female Farmworkers

Abstract

The objective of this study was to assess work-related hygiene practices and the frequency and location of skin rashes due to cutaneous contact with crop-associated materials (e.g., pesticides) for female nursery and fernery workers in Central Florida. A cross-sectional, community-based participatory research study of 237 female nursery and fernery workers between the ages of 19 and 43 years with significant cutaneous contact with foliage crops was conducted using a self-report questionnaire and a skin rash chart assessment tool. Of the 237 farmworkers surveyed, 37.1% ( n = 88) reported a rash on at least one area of their bodies. Women who were pregnant during the study were 4.7 times more likely to report more than 30% total body surface area (TBSA) covered by rash compared with non-pregnant fernery workers ( p = .045; 95% confidence interval [CI] [1.04, 21.35]). Further research is needed to better understand the development of skin rashes among farmworkers, to generate effective prevention strategies.

Both Handwashing and an Alcohol-Based Hand Sanitizer Intervention Reduce Soil and Microbial Contamination on Farmworker Hands during Harvest, but Produce Type Matters

“…A third mechanism explaining the differences in hand hygiene effectiveness may be due to the differing ability of nonantimicrobial soaps and ABHS to inactivate microbes (30). A fourth mechanism may be the degree of skin roughness or calluses (15,16) and other physical hand characteristics (e.g., temperature and moisture) that may affect the attachment of different bacterial species to hands and, in turn, the efficacy of microbial removal by hand hygiene products. Last, another possibility may be that harvesting different produce commodities results in a different number of touch events within the same harvest period, which could influence hand contamination levels and in turn hand hygiene effectiveness.…”

“…Most of these studies have been conducted in health care or community settings (8,9,13,14), which may not accurately reflect agricultural settings. Agricultural workers' hands likely differ from health care provider hands (15,16), and even in the health care setting, worker hand characteristics are likely to vary substantially depending on subspecialty and tasks performed. Therefore, it is plausible that the degree of soil and microbial contamination on farmworker hands and the effectiveness of hand hygiene interventions will differ depending on the produce commodity harvested.…”

Community-based participatory design of a community health worker breast cancer training intervention for South Florida Latinx farmworkers

“…Engaging minority populations requires tailored, context-specific and culturally appropriate strategies that address this disproportionate burden of disease. Community-based participatory research (CBPR) facilitates collaborative research partnerships that enable meaningful consideration of sociocultural context [21], and has been successfully conducted with farmworker communities around the US to study and address occupational hazards like pesticide exposure [22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30], and to promote mental and physical health promotion and healthcare utilization [31][32][33][34][35]. Numerous community-based studies related to breast cancer have evidenced barriers to care for Spanish-speaking Latina farmworkers including fear, stigma, low education and health literacy levels, and have stressed the importance of targeted outreach strategies and the involvement of community members in the development and implementation of education and screening interventions to ensure that specific needs are met [36][37][38][39][40][41].…”