Sleeping Within Six Feet: Challenging Oregon's Labor Housing COVID-19 Guidelines.

Facing the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and increasing outbreaks among farmworkers and food processing workers across the nation, the Oregon Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OR OSHA) issued temporary regulations, in contrast to optional recommendations, in late spring. These regulations aimed to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission among farmworkers, but made compromises that may fail to reduce the risk of further outbreaks among Oregon's agricultural workers, particularly those living in agricultural labor housing. Instead of considering the scientific literature that called for attention to space and length of time for social distancing among unrelated persons in indoor areas, the agency accepted the 6-foot social distancing rule of thumb and allowed even shorter distances between beds with the installation of plastic or plywood barriers.

Federal Farmworker Housing Standards and Regulations, Their Promise and Limitations, and Implications for Farmworker Health.

The housing available to most farmworkers is substandard and unacceptable in 21st-century America. The federal government established minimal occupational safety and health standards applicable to migrant farmworker labor camps decades ago, and some states have statutory schemes and regulations that set standards for farm labor camps and employee housing. Many of these federal and state regulations no longer reflect current employment and housing trends, and enforcement success varies greatly.

"They Talk Like That, But We Keep Working": Sexual Harassment and Sexual Assault Experiences Among Mexican Indigenous Farmworker Women in Oregon.

In order to examine the experiences of sexual harassment and sexual assault among indigenous and non-indigenous Mexican immigrant farmworkers in Oregon's Willamette Valley, a community-academic participatory research partnership initiated a study, which included focus groups, conducted and analyzed by skilled practitioners and researchers. The themes that emerged from the focus groups included direct and indirect effects of sexual harassment and sexual assault on women and risk factors associated with the farmworker workplace environment, and the increased vulnerability of non-Spanish-speaking indigenous women due to low social status, poverty, cultural and linguistic issues, and isolation. Recommendations for prevention and improved services for vulnerable women will be discussed as well as limitations and future research directions.

Integrating the wisdom and experience of indigenous farmworkers to improve farmworker safety and health.

Background: Community advisory committees (CACs) increasingly are formed to cultivate partnerships between researchers and communities.

Objectives: This article details the processes used to recruit CAC members, the purpose and structure of the committees, members' motivation to participate, and examples of member input and influence.

Methods: In-depth interviews, meeting notes, and partners' reflections were synthesized to identify key lessons regarding establishing and sustaining effective CACs.

Oregon indigenous farmworkers: results of promotor intervention on pesticide knowledge and organophosphate metabolite levels.

Objectives: To examine changes in health beliefs, pesticide safety knowledge, and biomarkers of pesticide exposure in indigenous farmworkers who received enhanced pesticide safety training compared with those receiving the standard training.

Methods: Farmworkers in Oregon were randomly assigned to either a promotors pesticide safety training program or a standard video-based training. Spot urine samples were analyzed for dialkyl phosphate urinary metabolites.

Recruiting and retaining indigenous farmworker participants.

There is limited information on the specific practices used to successfully recruit and retain indigenous and Latino farmworkers in research studies. This article describes the strategies used in a community-based participatory research project with indigenous agricultural workers. Participants were recruited through consulting with indigenous relatives and friends, identifying and meeting with indigenous leaders from hometown associations in countries of origin, and asking current participants to recruit fellow farmworkers.

Pesticide exposure and occupational safety training of indigenous farmworkers in Oregon.

This follow-up study assessed indigenous and Latino farmworkers' occupational health and safety needs and measured variables related to pesticide exposure and pesticide safety training among this population. Results yielded differences between indigenous workers and Latino workers related to language barriers, experiences of workplace discrimination, preferred modes of information dissemination, pesticide exposures, and sufficiency of pesticide training. Employing more people who speak indigenous languages as interpreters, community and organizational leaders, and health workers may remove some of the linguistic and cultural barriers to occupational safety training.

Occupational conditions and well-being of indigenous farmworkers.

Increasing numbers of indigenous farmworkers from Mexico and Guatemala have been arriving in the Pacific Northwest (indigenous people are not of Hispanic or Latino descent and migrate from regions with unique cultural and linguistic traditions). Multilingual project outreach workers administered surveys to 150 farmworkers in Oregon to assess health, occupational safety, and general living conditions. This study confirms the increasing presence of indigenous peoples in Oregon and characterizes differences between indigenous and Latino farmworkers' occupational and health needs.

Promoting the occupational health of indigenous farmworkers.

In the United States, approximately 78% of agricultural farmworkers are immigrants. In Oregon, a growing number of these farmworkers are indigenous and speak an indigenous language as their primary language. This group of farmworkers suffers from linguistic, cultural and geographic isolation and faces a unique set of challenges yet little has been done to identify their health needs.