This summer, Dr. Thurka Sangaramoorthy and Emilia Mercedes Guevara accompanied farmworkers in Dorchester County, Maryland to address the quality and condition of their housing and the effect that it has had on their physical and emotional health. Their research on health issues associated with inadequate housing conditions of immigrant farmworkers is discussed in a recent post on Dr. Sangaramoorthy’s blog:

“Immigrants provide a significant amount of agricultural labor in the United States and often live and work in exploitative conditions and substandard housing. Farmworkers are willing to accept poor quality or crowded housing provided by their employer because it is difficult to find alternate housing options due to fear, lack of housing availability, severe financial constraints, language barriers, and lack of transportation. Farmworkers can sometimes pay exorbitant rents for dilapidated apartments, motel rooms, trailers, mobile homes, barns or sheds and, frequently, basic necessities like adequate sanitation, safe water and electricity are lacking.

Inadequate housing affects farmworker physical and mental health due to exposure to chemicals like pesticides, biological agents like infectious diseases, physical hazards like live wires, and mental and psychological stressors like fear and social isolation. Provisions of the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OSHA) require employers to meet sanitation standards and labor camp housing standards as well as offer workers access to safety equipment. However, appropriations riders prohibit federal health and safety inspections at small farms (less than 11 farmworkers) and exempt those same farms from OSHA’s worker protection provisions.

This summer, we accompanied farmworker outreach workers and encountered farmworkers living just minutes apart in Dorchester County, Maryland who lived in vastly different conditions.”

To read the rest, click here.