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Migrant and seasonal farmworkers are typically Spanish-speaking, Latino immigrants with limited formal education and low literacy skills and, as such, are a vulnerable population. We describe the development of the "Pesticides and Farmworker Health Toolkit", a pesticide safety and health curriculum designed to communicate to farmworkers pesticide hazards found in their working environments. Using evidence-informed principles, the "Toolkit" curriculum for low-literacy, Latino farmworkers and its developmental process described herein serve as an innovative and useful model for Extension programming with non-traditional audiences.

Among agricultural workers, migrant and seasonal farmworkers have been recognized as a special risk population because these laborers encounter cultural challenges and linguistic barriers while attempting to maintain their safety and health within their working environments. The crop-specificPesticides and Farmworker Health Toolkit(Toolkit) is a pesticide safety and health curriculum designed to communicate to farmworkers pesticide hazards commonly found in their working environments and to address Worker Protection Standard (WPS) pesticide training criteria for agricultural workers. The goal of this preliminary study was to test evaluation items for measuring knowledge increases among farmworkers and to assess the effectiveness of theToolkitin improving farmworkers’ knowledge of key WPS and risk communication concepts when theToolkitlesson was delivered by trained trainers in the field. After receiving training on the curriculum, four participating trainers provided lessons using theToolkitas part of their regular training responsibilities and orally administered a pre- and post-lesson evaluation instrument to 20 farmworker volunteers who were generally representative of the national farmworker population. Farmworker knowledge of pesticide safety messages significantly (P <.05) increased after participation in the lesson. Further, items with visual alternatives were found to be most useful in discriminating between more and less knowledgeable farmworkers. The pilot study suggests that thePesticides and Farmworker Health Toolkitis an effective, research-based pesticide safety and health intervention for the at-risk farmworker population and identifies a testing format appropriate for evaluating theToolkitand other similar interventions for farmworkers in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Latino immigrants to rural counties within North Carolina are at an increased risk for experiencing injury, health complications, and chronic illness. This is due largely to the fact that many new immigrants arrive with limited knowledge of the health and safety risks that are present in their communities. To reduce the incidence of injury and health complications, programs must be developed to increase local awareness of these risks. This article outlines the collaborative efforts of one rural North Carolina community to develop and implement a community-based health and safety event for Latino families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]