Name of Report: Safety is Seguridad: A Workshop Executive Summary
Organizational Affiliation: National Academy of Sciences
Author: Committee on Communicating Occupational Safety and Health Information to Spanish-speaking Workers, Committee on Earth Resources, National Research Council
Date: 2003
Pages: 3
Content Summary
In May 2002, the National Research Council (NRC) hosted a workshop in San Diego, California that was geared at addressing the issue of accessibility of health and occupational safety techniques and materials for Spanish-speaking employees all over the U.S. This workshop emerged from planning done by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). NIOSH is a national organization interested in developing Spanish-language occupational safety and health educational technical material for the ever-growing population of Spanish-speaking workers in the country. This executive summary outlines the initial purpose for the 2002 workshop. It outlines the major elements that the workshop was meant to address. Essentially, the workshop would (1) identify the most crucial occupational and safety issues faced by Spanish-speaking employees (2) examine the ways in which NIOSH could best supply information that would address the workers needs, (3) identity potential partnerships that would help in reaching workers. Finally, the major bulk of the summary discusses the outcome of the workshop.
In attempting to improve what was available in literature for the Spanish-speaking population, it was quickly decided that simple translations of occupational health and safety literature should not merely be translated into Spanish. Instead, there was a consensus that major efforts should be made to address the diversity of the Hispanic workforce.
Major Findings
Primarily, the workshop participants claimed that existing material was often poorly assembled and ineffective in reaching the Spanish-speaking population of workers. They also echoed the sentiment that there was a dire need for more Spanish-language resources should be collected and evaluated on an ongoing basis. Moreover, participants argued that different forms of media should be collected as well as the need for new material to be produced. It was also gathered from the workshop that a priority should be placed on developing materials as part of a strategic initiative to reach Spanish-speaking workers and their communities with useful information that would essentially decrease the number of preventable accidents. The major priorities that the participants outlined were the need for information to reach (1) workers who speak and write little to no English; (2) recent immigrants; (3) workers with low literacy in both English and Spanish; (4) workers with high-risk occupations.
Unaddressed Issues or Concerns
Because this report is so brief in nature, it only addresses certain aspects of occupational health and safety for the Spanish speaking population. It does not include statistics that demonstrate the extent to which Spanish-speaking laborers are subject to injury and illness as a result of their job environments. Apparently, occupational deaths among Hispanic workers have rose more than 50 percent since 1992. Since 2000, fatalities among the Hispanic population has rose by 12 percent. Not only is it an issue of being exposed to more training about job safety, the problem also stems from poor inspections of work environments equipment. Moreover, it is an issue of blatant racism. According to Erik Nicholson, director of United Farm workers in the Pacific Northwest, Racism is responsible for much of the conditions that low earning Hispanic laborers are subject to (Krisberg 11). It is also important to consider that many of these workers are probably immigrant workers who are easily exploited because they are unsure of their rights or are just afraid to assert them.
Reference List
Krisberg, Kim."Work place health disparities increasing among Hispanics." Nation's Health 34. 2 (2004): 11-12
How to Access Report
http://books.nap.edu/catalog/10641.html