Home |  Español

  • Home
  • Who We Are
    • Who We Are
    • Staff
    • Board
    • Partners
    • Community
  • Projects
    • Rainwater Harvesting
    • Resilient Communities
    • Promotora Program
    • Community Risk Reduction
    • Children's Health Nogales
    • Pollution Prevention
  • News & Calendar
    • News
    • Calendar
    • Workshops
  • Get Involved
    • Volunteer
    • Students
  • Contact
  • Donate
  • Español

Projects

Pollution Prevention

  •  
A summa cannister collects air samples at a salon. A PID detector in use on the project. Researchers

The project provides out bilingual pollution prevention technical assistance through on-site visits and workshops to small business sectors in our environmental justice community utilizing a community health worker intervention. It is aimed at reducing worker exposure to volatile organic compounds at small business through source reduction. Our community-based approach is accepted by the small business community and will provides an enhanced opportunity to reduce the use of hazardous materials.

El Trabajo no te Debe Dañar: Reduction of Hazardous Exposures in Small Businesses through a Community Health Worker Intervention

Our team has received a National Institutes of Health Grant  for “El Trabajo no te Debe Dañar: Reduction of Hazardous Exposures in Small Businesses through a Community Health Worker Intervention” to continue and expand the work under the pilot.

Through a community-engaged research framework we are: 1) quantifying and identifying exposures to hazardous chemicals in two high risk small business sectors common in our target area (auto body and mechanic shops and beauty salons); 2) working collaboratively with business owners, trade groups, and workers to design an industrial hygiene enhanced CHW intervention tailored for each small business sector; and 3) conducting a cluster randomized trial to evaluate the effectiveness of the CHW intervention at reducing workplace exposures to VOCs and assess which factors lead to successful utilization of exposure control strategies in both male and female dominated businesses. The interventions will overcome current barriers by helping marginalized Latino workers and small business owners who may have limited education, literacy, and computer skills to understand the hazards associated with their work, and will empower them to have greater control over their occupational exposures, with the ultimate goal of preventing occupational disease and reducing health disparities.

PID detector

A PID detector for volatile organic compounds in use at a salon as part of the study.

The team has already quantified actual pre-intervention VOC exposures at 18 small businesses using real-time photoionization detectors at parts per billion level, recorded activity logs of each worker’s job tasks for their entire work shift, and used a stationary monitor to measure the concentration of 61 individual VOCs in the workplace air. We have conducted site audits at the businesses to document VOC sources (e.g., VOC-generating materials and processes, quantity and type of chemicals used), existing engineering controls (e.g., ventilation, fume hoods), administrative controls (e.g., job rotation, housekeeping, worker training), and personal protective equipment (e.g., respirator, gloves).

In This Section

Rainwater Harvesting
Low-Income Rainwater Harvesting Program Application
Rain Barrel Ordering Form
Resilient Communities
Promotora Program
Community Risk Reduction
Children’s Health Program in Nogales
Pollution Prevention

Sonora Environmental Research Institute, Inc.

SERI
P. O. Box 65782
Tucson, AZ 85728

(520) 321-9488 | .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Sections

  • Who We Are
  • Rainwater Harvesting
  • Resilient Communities
  • Promotora Program
  • Community Risk Reduction
  • News
  • Calendar
  • Workshops
  • Contact
  • Donate
  • Resources

Follow Us

© 1994 - 2019, Sonora Environmental Research Institute, Inc.