Fresno County – A new study on farm worker self-care released by the the California Institute on Rural Studies has looked at farm workers and their hydration practices as it pertains to the condition of Heat Related Illness or HRI. Findings were very revealing in that those in the study feel that hydration practices are more of a requirement than a personal choice to stay hydrated and stave off HRI on the job.
The authors of the study had this to say, ““We just have to continue working.” The authors, Michael D. Courville, M.D; Gail Wadsworth of the California institute for Rural Studies and Marc Schenker of the University of California, Davis, spent over a year on this study and recently publish this online in early March.
Here’s an excerpt from their findings, “While it is sound practice to train farm workers to increase water consumption, there is little evidence that drinking water is part of the everyday behavioral practices of field workers. Still further, the act of drinking water manifests more often as something identified as a requirement of the employer or a requirement of the job, an imposition from a source of power and control rather than an internal impetus.”
The study was released in the Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development and can be found online at AgDevJournal.com and an advance article and complete .pdf copy of the report can be seen by clicking here.
Posted by – Jon Brent / Sarquis; Manager of Marketing and Communications at Datatech; Jon@DatatechAg.com