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Occupational safety beliefs among Latino residential roofing workers
Author(s) -
Arcury Thomas A.,
Summers Phillip,
Carrillo Lourdes,
Grzywacz Joseph G.,
Quandt Sara A.,
Mills Thomas H.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
american journal of industrial medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.7
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1097-0274
pISSN - 0271-3586
DOI - 10.1002/ajim.22248
Subject(s) - occupational safety and health , medicine , personal protective equipment , occupational injury , psychological intervention , human factors and ergonomics , work (physics) , poison control , safety behaviors , qualitative research , injury prevention , safety culture , enforcement , environmental health , workers' compensation , productivity , population , suicide prevention , affect (linguistics) , nursing , compensation (psychology) , psychology , social psychology , engineering , social science , macroeconomics , pathology , sociology , management , covid-19 , mechanical engineering , disease , infectious disease (medical specialty) , economics , law , communication , political science
Background This analysis describes beliefs about work safety and personal protective equipment (PPE) among Latino roofing workers, it delineates their perceptions of work environment characteristics that affect work safety and PPE use, and it describes how they experience work injuries and the consequences of these injuries. Methods In‐depth interviews were completed with 10 current and former Latino residential roofers. Interview transcripts were subjected to systematic qualitative analysis. Results Participants' valued productivity over safety, and this had a negative influence on their safety behavior and reduced their PPE use. They understood that roofing was hazardous. They limited use of PPE when they felt it reduced productivity and when it was uncomfortable. Work environment characteristics that affected safety included company size, the physical demands of the job, lack of training, the need for work, general life stress, and distractions at work. An injury had to result in lost work time to be considered significant. Access to health care is limited by employers not providing Workers' compensation. Discussion Future research is needed to substantiate these descriptive results and to delineate factors that are associated with safety behavior and use of PPE. Interventions, based on a lay health educator model, are needed to improve safety in this population. Safety regulations need to be evaluated and their enforcement needs to be improved. Am. J. Ind. Med. 57:718–725, 2014. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.