Promoting Workplace Health, Safety, and Well-Being Among Essential Agricultural Workers Through Vaccine-Preventable Infectious Diseases Training in the Rio Grande Valley.

Introduction: Health, safety, and well-being training programs provide essential education on anticipating, identifying, and mitigating exposures like infectious diseases. Gaps in infectious diseases awareness and education became especially apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequently were exacerbated by mis- and disinformation.

Methods: Vaccine-preventable infectious diseases training (influenza, hepatitis A and B, and tetanus infections, including COVID-19) was developed, delivered, and evaluated among 1,043 farmworkers, bodega workers, and production management in the Rio Grande Valley using mobile-learning technologies.

Using motor vehicle crash records for injury surveillance and research in agriculture and forestry.

Problem: Fatal injuries in the agriculture, forestry, and fishing sector (AgFF) outweigh those across all sectors in the United States. Transportation-related injuries are among the top contributors to these fatal events. However, traditional occupational injury surveillance systems may not completely capture crashes involving farm vehicles and logging trucks, specifically nonfatal events.

Risk Perceptions in Agricultural Aviation.

Background: Agricultural aircraft operations are an integral part of the agricultural sector. According to the National Agriculture Aviation Association (NAAA), aerial applications are conducted in all 50 states of the U.S.

Crash narrative classification: Identifying agricultural crashes using machine learning with curated keywords.

Objective: Traditionally, structured or coded data fields from a crash report are the basis for identifying crashes involving different types of vehicles, such as farm equipment. However, using only the structured data can lead to misclassification of vehicle or crash type. The objective of the current article is to examine the use of machine learning methods for identifying agricultural crashes based on the crash narrative and to transfer the application of models to different settings (e.

Evaluating the Impact of Race and Gender on Environmental Risk Perceptions in the Houston Neighborhood of Manchester.

Previous research has shown that white males tend to perceive risks from environmental exposures as lower than women and members of minority populations, often referred to as the white male effect. However, this effect was mostly demonstrated without regard to the actual lived environment experienced by the study participants. There is growing evidence that differences in risk perceptions cannot be adequately explained through race or gender.

A semi-automated tool for identifying agricultural roadway crashes in crash narratives.

Crash reports contain precoded structured data fields and a crash narrative that can be a source of rich information not included in the structured data. The narrative can be useful for identifying vulnerable roadway users, such as agricultural workers. However, using the narratives often requires manual reviews that are time consuming and costly.

Influence of Work on Elevated Blood Pressure in Hispanic Adolescents in South Texas.

Literature supports an association between work and cardiovascular disease in adults. The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between current work status and elevated blood pressure in Hispanic adolescents. Participants were students in Hidalgo County, located along the Texas-Mexico border.

Feasibility of Portable Fingerstick Cholinesterase Testing in Adolescents in South Texas.

Adolescents are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of pesticide exposures, which can be assessed using surveys, environmental measurements, and biomonitoring. Biomonitoring of blood cholinesterase can be used to determine if an individual has been exposed to pesticides. A limitation of blood cholinesterase testing can be the use of a laboratory as well as time to receive results.

Single Vehicle Logging-Related Traffic Crashes in Louisiana from 2010-2015.

Objectives: According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), highway transportation crashes are the number one cause of fatal occupational injuries in the United States. The rate of fatal crashes in logging far exceeds the average annual rate for all sectors combined, yet few studies examine logging-related transportation crashes, and little is known about factors influencing the frequency of these crashes. The purpose of this study was to identify factors associated with fatal and nonfatal injuries among drivers involved in a single vehicle logging-related crash in Louisiana.

Exploring Demographic and Environmental Factors Related to Unintentional Pesticide Poisonings in Children and Adolescents in Texas.

There is limited literature on the frequency and distribution of pesticide exposures, specifically with respect to demographic and environmental factors in the United States. The purpose of this exploratory study was to investigate geographic trends and factors associated with unintentional pesticide exposures in children and adolescents in Texas. The study used an ecological design with secondary data.

Characteristics of acute occupational pesticide exposures reported to poison control centers in Texas, 2000-2015.

In the United States, there is limited literature on occupational pesticide exposures despite being associated with adverse health outcomes, including in large states such as Texas. The purpose of this article is to characterize occupational pesticide poison center exposures in Texas. Descriptive statistics were used to describe exposures (eg, exposure routes, type of pesticide, medical outcome, clinical effects, and temporal/seasonal patterns).

The Impacts of Exposure to Environmental Risk on Physical and Mental Health in a Small Geographic Community in Houston, TX.

Previous research has shown that communities with low average socioeconomic status (SES) and majority minority populations are more likely to be exposed to industrial buildings, waste facilities, and poor infrastructure compared to white communities with higher average SES. While some studies have demonstrated linkages between exposures to specific environmental contaminates within these communities and negative health outcomes, little research has analyzed the effects of environmental contaminants on the mental and physical health of these populations. A cross-sectional survey collected data from residents of Manchester, a small neighborhood in Houston, TX, that is characterized by industrial sites, unimproved infrastructure, nuisance flooding, and poor air quality.

Bayesian variable selection in the accelerated failure time model with an application to the surveillance, epidemiology, and end results breast cancer data.

Accelerated failure time model is a popular model to analyze censored time-to-event data. Analysis of this model without assuming any parametric distribution for the model error is challenging, and the model complexity is enhanced in the presence of large number of covariates. We developed a nonparametric Bayesian method for regularized estimation of the regression parameters in a flexible accelerated failure time model.

"The Only Thing I Wish I Could Change Is That They Treat Us Like People and Not Like Animals": Injury and Discrimination Among Latino Farmworkers.

Objective: This article describes how perceived discrimination shapes the way Latino farmworkers encounter injuries and seek out treatment.

Methods: After 5 months of ethnographic fieldwork, 89 open-ended, semistructured interviews were analyzed. NVivo was used to code and qualitatively organize the interviews and field notes.

Confirming the Environmental Concerns of Community Members Utilizing Participatory-Based Research in the Houston Neighborhood of Manchester.

In the last few decades, there has been an increase in community-based participatory research being conducted within the United States. Recent research has demonstrated that working with local community organizations, interest groups, and individuals can assist in the creation of, and sustainability in, health initiatives, adoption of emergency protocols, and potentially improve health outcomes for at-risk populations. However little research has assessed if communal concerns over environmental contaminants would be confirmed through environmental research.

Pesticide-Related Hospitalizations Among Children and Teenagers in Texas, 2004-2013.

Objective: Acute exposure to pesticides is associated with nausea, headaches, rashes, eye irritation, seizures, and, in severe cases, death. We characterized pesticide-related hospitalizations in Texas among children and teenagers for 2004-2013 to characterize exposures in this population, which is less well understood than pesticide exposure among adults.

Methods: We abstracted information on pesticide-related hospitalizations from hospitalization data using pesticide-related International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) codes and E-codes.

Pesticide-related poison center exposures in children and adolescents aged ≤19 years in Texas, 2000-2013.

Context: Although national poison center data show that pesticides were the 8th most commonly reported substance category (3.27%) for children aged ≤5 years in 2014, there is limited information on childhood and adolescent pesticide exposures.

Objective: This study assessed pesticide-related poison center exposures in children and adolescents aged ≤19 years from 2000-2013 in Texas to characterize the potential burden of pesticides.

Ergonomics and Beyond: Understanding How Chemical and Heat Exposures and Physical Exertions at Work Affect Functional Ability, Injury, and Long-Term Health.

Objective: To honor Tom Waters's work on emerging occupational health issues, we review the literature on physical along with chemical exposures and their impact on functional outcomes.

Background: Many occupations present the opportunity for exposure to multiple hazardous exposures, including both physical and chemical factors. However, little is known about how these different factors affect functional ability and injury.

Predicting violent behavior in clinical settings: a case-control study of a mental health inpatient unit.

In order to assist staff in recognizing patients prone to violence and guide their clinical decision-making, this study summarizes mental health inpatient unit incidents over a one-year period. Results describe demographic and clinical information for patients, and evaluate risk assessment tools currently used to predict risk. A retrospective analysis included data on patients involved in incidents and frequency matched controls.

Prenatal Exposure to Nitrosatable Drugs, Dietary Intake of Nitrites, and Preterm Birth.

Prenatal exposure to nitrosatable drugs, including secondary or tertiary amines, has been associated with preterm birth. Associations may be accentuated by higher intakes of dietary nitrites because of the increased formation of N-nitroso compounds. Using data from mothers of babies without major birth defects (controls) from the National Birth Defects Prevention Study, we examined the relationship between nitrosatable drug exposure in conjunction with dietary nitrite intake and preterm birth among 496 mothers of preterm infants and 5,398 mothers with full-term deliveries in 1997-2005.

Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors in Hispanic Adolescents in South Texas.

Objectives: Despite a national crisis of increased prevalence of obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus in adolescents, especially among Hispanics, there is a paucity of data on health indicators among farmworker adolescents and their peers. The main aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of cardiovascular disease risk factors in a population of Hispanic adolescent students in south Texas. The study also aimed to compare the prevalence of these risk factors between students enrolled in the Migrant Education Program (MEP) and other students, and between boys and girls.

Workplace Safety Interventions for Commercial Fishermen of the Gulf.

Commercial fishing continues to have one of the highest rates of occupational fatalities compared with other work sectors in the United States. Attitudes/beliefs among Vietnamese shrimp fishermen of the Gulf of Mexico may influence behaviors that are risk factors for fatal and nonfatal injuries. The study employs a community trial with quasi-experimental pretest/posttest intervention design.

Nitrosatable Drug Exposure during Pregnancy and Preterm and Small-for-Gestational-Age Births.

Background: Nitrosatable drugs react with nitrite in the stomach to form N-nitroso compounds, observed in animal models to result in adverse pregnancy outcomes, such as birth defects and reduced fetal weight. Previous studies examining prenatal exposure to medications classified as nitrosatable have reported an increased risk of preterm births (PTBs) and small-for-gestational-age (SGA) infants.

Methods: Using data from mothers (controls) of babies without major birth defects from the National Birth Defects Prevention Study, prenatal nitrosatable drug usage by trimester and month of gestation was examined in relation to PTBs and SGA infants.

Community based research network: opportunities for coordination of care, public health surveillance, and farmworker research.

Introduction: The lack of aggregated longitudinal health data on farmworkers has severely limited opportunities to conduct research to improve their health status. To correct this problem, we have created the infrastructure necessary to develop and maintain a national Research Data Repository of migrant and seasonal farmworker patients and other community members receiving medical care from Community and Migrant Health Centers (C/MHCs). Project specific research databases can be easily extracted from this repository.

Evaluating the effects of a large increase in off-sale alcohol outlets on motor vehicle crashes: a time-series analysis.

This study examined the effects on motor vehicle crashes of a policy change that led to the introduction of a very large number of off-sale alcohol outlets in Lubbock, Texas. Times-series analysis of total crashes and single-vehicle nighttime (SVN) crashes was used to compare the periods before and after the policy change in Lubbock and in a comparison area. The results of the analysis revealed some weak effects on total crashes, but no statistically significant effects were found for SVN crashes.