Do Latino Migrant and seasonal farm workers have a higher risk of Essay

Do Latino Migrant and seasonal farm workers have a higher risk of contracting cancer than other Latinos living in the US - Essay Example In addition, a failure to interpret the potential and cancer causing hazards that often accompanies the farm task could be attributed to the lack of knowledge by the Latinos on such threats. Also, a majority of these immigrant workers are not fluent in English, and it is therefore important that such risks are addressed in Spanish; ads the workers are more conversant in it. This study thus sought to identify the knowledge of the farm workers regarding the cancer properties of the nature of work that they handle, as well as the dangers that they are daily exposed to while mixing, loading and spraying these pesticides. More than two thirds of the respondents were male, and a similar number indicated that they could not leave their current job even in the face of health risks, citing financial constraints. It is paramount therefore that the plight of this minority group be addressed to avert the rising trend in cancer cases among the Latino farm workers, and their children. Almost 88 percent of all the farm workers found in the United States are Latinos. These workers, together with their families face exposures to pesticides on a regular basis, and this exposure has the potential of increasing prostrate cancer, lymphoma, as well as childhood cancers (Zham & Blair 1993). Yet, despite a reveal... ntific community and government officials have to a large extent overlooked the potential impact of a pollution of this kind on the health of these Latinos. Both the federal and state agencies rarely collect the relevant data. In addition, there are few studies that also address the environmental health risks that are capable of affecting the Latino communities (Zham et al, 1997).Majority of the government authorities, farm operators, the farm industry, and the landlords do not also provide the much needed warnings on the environmental health threats in Spanish. Consequently, a lot of the Hispanics are left without the much needed information that would otherwise enable them to evaluate the risks that faces them with regard to the environmental contaminants, be it at their jobs, or in the neighborhoods. In line with these observations then, it is the objective of this research report therefore to help in bridging the information gap, by way of analyzing both the existing data and doc uments on the pollution exposures, and the resulting health consequences ( in particular cancer). Literature review Latinos constitutes the largest minority group living in the United States. By 2002, nearly 40 million Latinos were living in the United States, and this was nearly 13 percent of the entire population of the United States (Variyam & Mishra, 2005). According to a recent study that was commissioned by the California cancer registry, 1,001 farm workers out of 140,000 Latino working in various farms in California were found to have been diagnosed with cancer for the period between 1973 and 1997 (Quandt et al, 2004) in comparison to the general population of the Latinos, those working as farm workers have a higher likelihood of developing stomach cancer by 69 percent, uterine