New and Emerging Research in Agricultural, Forestry, and Fishing Safety and Health - Agriculture Forestry and Fishing Research at NIOSH - page 178

The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration conducted a
study to identify issues in and strategies for highway safety in American Hispanic
communities (Martinez and Veloz, 1996). The problem most often mentioned by
Hispanic focus group participants and agency and organization representatives
was drinking and driving, followed by low seatbelt use (Martinez and Veloz, 1996).
Seven major challenges in addressing prevention in that population were identi-
fied: language; cultural differences within the Hispanic communities; low income
coupled with low expectations for the future and limited resources for organiza-
tions to provide services to everyone in need; heavy use of alcohol combined with
a lack of knowledge of the effects of alcohol on driving and confusion regarding
alcohol laws; recent immigrants' lack of knowledge of American laws, inability to
read signs and lack of valid drivers' licenses; Hispanic immigrants' lack of orien-
tation to health maintenance and failure to accept safety readily as an issue; and
absence of traffic-safety data on specific racial and ethnic groups (Martinez and
Veloz, 1996).
Increased concern about health and safety among agricultural workers who
commute from field to field and farm to farm during peak agricultural seasons
has not increased the number of programs targeted at preventing specific types of
injuries that are closely associated with the mode of travel of these workers and
their families (Grieshop et al., 1998). The safety of motor vehicles used to trans-
port migrant and seasonal agricultural workers is regulated by the Department
of Labor under the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act (29
USC §1801 et seq.), and these vehicles must comply with federal and state safety
regulations. However, regulations promulgated under the act must consider “the
extent to which a proposed standard would cause an undue burden on agricul-
tural employers, agricultural associations, or farm labor contractors.” The act also
precludes the transportation of a worker on a tractor, combine, harvester, picker,
or similar machinery or equipment while the worker is engaged in planting, cul-
tivating, or harvesting agricultural commodities or caring for livestock or poultry.
Regulations require the safe transport of migrant and seasonal farm workers, but
it is not clear that they are being applied or what barriers impede the application
of regulations that would improve safe transport.
Global Warming
Human-induced climate change, its potential impacts upon AFF working
populations, and options for potentially effective interventions to preserve health
status has received increasingly more attention in the last few years (Kilbourne,
1992; IPCC, 2007). The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report fore-
casts an average global temperature increase of between 1.1 and 6.4 degrees Celsius,
suggesting that warming of the climate system is unequivocal (IPCC, 2007).