Field Conditions for Agricultural Workers in the El Paso,Texas Region

Agricultural workers labor long hours under difficult conditions in many of the nations' fields and orchards. Agricultural workers are primarily minority populations, the most dominant group being Hispanic/Latino. The Rural Coalition and the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute were funded under the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) Environmental Justice Program, to investigate health and environmental issues that impact agricultural workers along the Texas-Mexican border area. A Spanish-language field conditions survey was developed and distributed to the workers entering the Sin Fronteras Organizing Project in El Paso, Texas. There were 841 valid surveys collected and analyzed for the calendar year 1998. Workers' age mean was 51, with 18.6 years of work experience in agriculture. In the time period surveyed, workers labored for 7.2 hours per day. The primary crop in which they worked were chilies.