Objectives:

1. (a) To assess the degree of employer compliance with the EPA Worker Protection Standards (WPS) in four migrant camps and
   (b) To assess the exposure of migrant farmworkers to pesticides.
2. To evaluate the extent of knowledge migrant farmworkers have of pesticides (specifically: what pesticides are, what their health effects are, what the symptoms of exposure are, and how exposure can be prevented).
3. To assess the saliency of pesticides to migrant farmworkers.

Methods: I administered a survey to 88 migrant farmworkers in four camps in the Hillsboro region of Oregon. I obtained frequency distributions and crude odds ratios using the statistical analysis package SPSS.

Results:

• Work Conditions: The Worker Protection Standards are unevenly complied with by employers. Specific aspects of the regulations are not as uniformly followed as others (e.g. workers do appear to be informed by their employer of pesticide applications but training is not consistently provided).
• Health Conditions: Illness is a prominent occurrence among workers, with half of the interviewees reporting health problems after working in the fields.
• Knowledge of Pesticides: Knowledge of pesticides is extremely low, indicating that the WPS are not meeting one of the stated main objectives.
• Saliency of Pesticides: Pesticides are not a primary concern for farmworkers relative to other issues.
• Groups at Higher Risk: Specific sub-groups were more likely to report non-compliance with the WPS, indicators of exposure to pesticides, low knowledge of pesticides, and health problems. These groups are: women, indigenous workers, speakers of indigenous languages, and particular camps.

Conclusion:

Uneven compliance with the WPS places workers at greater risk of unsafe exposure to pesticides. The low knowledge and saliency of pesticides decreases the ability of farmworkers to address work conditions related to pesticide exposure. Government agencies should be more active in ensuring that owners fully comply with the WPS. However, the issue of pesticide exposure will not be resolved in the long term unless the broader dynamics affecting work conditions are addressed, including the international political and economic structure that creates the need for migration and the legal inequality between documented and undocumented immigrants.