Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Occupational and Environmental Health

  • Reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Immigrant Health

  • 483 Accesses

The Boundaries Between Occupational and Environmental Health and Safety

Occupational and environmental health are often considered together because they are largely similar and, in many ways, overlap or intersect with each other. Indeed, the boundaries are mostly social rather than scientific. In the USA, the same individual who is in a car crash while driving for work would be classified as an occupational injury, whereas if the crash occurred under identical circumstances off work time it would not be considered occupational. Likewise, a waiter who is exposed to secondhand smoke at the restaurant where he/she works has an occupational exposure, whereas if he/she were a customer in that same restaurant, his/her exposure would be environmental.

The political separation into occupational and environmental exposures has led to distinct regulatory approaches. Critically also, exposures at work often differ from those in the general populations both in form and intensity. While secondhand...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 1,100.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 549.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • AFLCIO. (2005). Immigrant workers at risk: The urgent need for improved workplace safety and health policies and programs. http://www.aflcio.org/aboutus/laborday/upload/immigrant_risk.pdf. Accessed March 10, 2010.

  • Aguirre International. (2005). The California Farm Labor Force: Overview and trends from the national agricultural workers survey. http://hia.berkeley.edu/index.php?page=articles-on-migration-and-health. Accessed December 20, 2010.

  • American Nonsmokers’ Right Foundation. (2010). U.S. 100% smokefree laws in workplaces and restaurants and bars. http://www.no-smoke.org/pdf/WRBLawsMap.pdf

  • Azaroff, L., Doan, T., Nguyen, H., Goldstein-Gelb, M., Fraer-Cook, M., & Kota, S. (2006). Protecting workers and residents from wood floor-finishing hazards. New Solutions, 16(2), 119–138.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Azaroff, L., Levenstein, C., & Wegman, D. (2004). The occupational health of Southeast Asians in Lowell: A descriptive study. International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health, 10(1), 47–54.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bacon, D. (2006). Communities without Borders: Images and voices from the world of migration. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baglio, G., Saunders, C., Spinelli, A., & Osborn, J. (2010). Utilisation of hospital services in Italy: A comparative analysis of immigrant and Italian citizens. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, 12(4), 598–609 (published online 6 Feb 2010).

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Brown, M., Domenzain, A., & Villoria-Siegert, N. (2002). Voices from the margin: Immigrant worker’s perceptions of health and safety in the workplace. http://www.losh.ucla.edu/losh/resources-publications/pdf/voicespolicybrief.pdf. Accessed February 10, 2010.

  • Brugge, D., DeJong, W., Hyde, J., Le, Q., Shih, C.-S., Wong, A., & Tran, A. (2002a). Development of targeted message concepts for recent Asian immigrants about second hand smoke. Journal of Health Communication, 7, 25–37.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Brugge, D., Lai, Z., Hill, C., & Rand, W. (2002b). Traffic injury data, policy, and public health: Lessons from Boston Chinatown. Journal of Urban Health: Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine, 79, 87–103.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brugge, D., Woodin, M., Schuch, T., Salas, F., Bennett, A., & Osgood, N.-D. (2008). Community-level data suggest that asthma prevalence varies between U.S. and foreign-born black subpopulations. The Journal of Asthma, 45(9), 785–789.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Buchanan, S., Vossenas, P., Krause, N., Moriarty, J., Frumin, E., Shimek, J. A. M., Mirer, F., Orris, P., & Punnett, L. (2010). Occupational injury disparities in the US hotel industry. American Journal of Industrial Medicine, 53(2), 116–125.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2009). Case and demographic characteristics for work-related injuries and illnesses involving days away from work. Table 10. http://www.bls.gov/iif/oshwc/osh/case/ostb2211.pdf. Accessed February 16, 2010.

  • de Castro, A. B., Fujishiro, K., Sweitzer, E., & Oliva, J. (2006). How immigrant workers experience workplace problems: A qualitative study. Archives of Environmental & Occupational Health, 61(6), 249–258.

    Google Scholar 

  • Das, R., Steege, A., Baron, S., Beckman, J., & Harrison, R. (2001). Pesticide-related illness among migrant farmworkers in the United States. International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health, 7(4), 303–312.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • de Castro, A. B., Gee, G. C., & Takeuchi, D. T. (2008). Job-related stress and chronic health conditions among Filipino immigrants. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, 10(6), 551–558.

    PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Diez Roux, A. V., Auchincloss, A. H., Franklin, T. G., Raghunathan, T., Graham Barr, R., Kaufman, J., Astor, B., & Keeler, J. (2008). Long-term exposure to ambient particulate matter and prevalence of subclinical atherosclerosis in the multi-ethnic study of atherosclerosis. American Journal of Epidemiology, 167, 667–675.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Donroe, J., Tincopa, M., Gilman, R. H., Brugge, D., & Moore, D. A. J. (2008). Pedestrian road traffic injuries in urban Peruvian children and adolescents: Case control analyses of personal and environmental risk factors. PLoS ONE, 3, e3166.

    PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Farquhar, S., Shadbeh, N., Samples, J., Ventura, S., & Goff, N. (2008). Occupational conditions and well-being of indigenous farmworkers. American Journal of Public Health, 98(11), 1956–1959.

    PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Grineski, S. E. (2007). Incorporating health outcomes into environmental justice research: The case of children’s asthma and air pollution in Phoenix, Arizona. Environmental Hazards, 7, 360–371.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grineski, S., Bolin, B., & Boone, C. (2007). Criteria air pollution and marginalized populations: Environmental inequity in metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona. Social Science Quarterly, 88(2), 535–554.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gulati, R. K., Kwan-Gett, T., Hampson, N. B., Baer, A., Shusterman, D., Shandro, J. R., & Duchin, J. S. (2009). Carbon monoxide epidemic among immigrant populations: King County, Washington, 2006. American Journal of Public Health, 9, 1687–1692.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gunier, R. B., Hertz, A., von Behren, J., & Reynolds, P. (2003). Traffic density in California: Socioeconomic and ethnic differences among potentially exposed children. Journal of Exposure Analysis and Environmental Epidemiology, 13, 240–246.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gute, D., Siqueira, E., Goldberg, J. S., Galvão, H., Chianelli, M., & Pirie, A. (2010). The Vida Verde Women’s Coop: Brazilian immigrants organizing to promote environmental and social justice. American Journal of Public Health, 99(S3), S495–S498.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hasselberg, M., & Laflamme, L. (2008). Road traffic injuries among young car drivers by country of origin and socioeconomic position. International Journal of Public Health, 53, 40–45.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hotez, P. J. (2008). Forgotten people, forgotten diseases: The neglected tropical diseases and their impact on global health and development. Washington, DC: ASM Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • International Organization for Migration. http://www.iom.int/jahia/Jahia/about-migration/facts-and-figures/lang/en

  • Julien, R., Adamkiewicz, G., Levy, J. I., Bennett, D., Nishioka, M., & Spengler, J. D. (2008). Pesticide loadings of select organophosphate and pyrethroid pesticides in urban public housing. Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology, 18(2), 167–174 Advance online publication 9 May 2007.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kandel, W. (2008). Profile of hired farmworkers, a 2008 update. Economic Research Service. U.S. Department of Agriculture. http://www.ers.usda.gov/Publications/ERR60/ERR60_ReportSummary.pdf

  • Kimberlee, R. (2008). Streets ahead on safety: Young people’s participation in decision-making to address the European road injury ‘epidemic’. Health & Social Care in the Community, 16, 322–328.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lashuay, N., Burgel, B. J., Harrison, R., Israel, L., Chan, J., Cusic, C., Chao Pun, J., Fong, K., & Shin, Y. (2002). “We Spend Our Day Working in Pain”: A report on workplace injuries in the garment district, 2002. http://www.aiwa.org/workingreport.pdf. Accessed February 10, 2010.

  • Laursen, B., & Moller, H. (2009). Unintentional injuries in children of Danish and foreign-born mothers. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, 37, 577–583.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Liu, A. H., & Leung, D. Y. M. (2006). Renaissance of the hygiene hypothesis. The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 117, 1063–1066.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Loh, K., & Richardson, S. (2004). Foreign-born workers: Trends in fatal occupational injuries, 1996–2001. Monthly Labor Review, 42, 42–53.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lowell, B. L., & Gerova, S. G. (2004). Immigrants and the health care workforce: Profiles and shortages. Work and Occupations, 31(4), 474–498.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ma, G. X., Shive, S. E., Tan, Y., & Feeney, R. M. (2004). The impact of acculturation on smoking in Asian American homes. Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, 15, 267–280.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Malievskaya, E., Rosenberg, N., & Markowitz, S. (2002). Assessing the health of immigrant workers near ground zero: Preliminary results of the World Trade Center day laborer medical monitoring project. American Journal of Industrial Medicine, 42(6), 542–549.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marín, A. J., Grzywacz, J. G., Arcury, T. A., Carrillo, L., Coates, M. L., & Quandt, S. A. (2009). Evidence of organizational injustice in poultry processing plants: Possible effects on occupational health and safety among Latino workers in North Carolina. American Journal of Industrial Medicine, 52(1), 37–48.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Martinez-Donate, A. P., Johnson-Kozlow, M., Hovell, M. F., & Gonzolez-Perez, G. (2009). Home smoking bans and secondhand smoke exposure in Mexico and the U.S. Preventive Medicine, 48, 207–212.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • McCauley, L., Lasarev, M. R., Higgins, G., Rothlein, J., Muniz, J., Ebbert, C., & Philipps, J. (2001). Work characteristics and pesticide exposures among migrant agricultural families: A community-based research approach. Environmental Health Perspectives, 109, 533–538.

    PubMed Central  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Morello-Frosch, R., & Jesdale, B. M. (2006). Separate and unequal: Residential segregation and estimated cancer risks associated with ambient air toxics in U.S. metropolitan areas. Environmental Health Perspectives, 114(3), 386–393.

    PubMed Central  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). (1996). EMFs in the workplace. http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/emf2.html. Accessed March 5, 2010.

  • National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). (2009). State of the Sector/Health Care and Social Assistance: Identification of research opportunities for the next decade of NORA. http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/2009-139/pdfs/2009-139.pdf. Accessed December 20, 2010.

  • National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). (2010a). Silica. http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/silica. Accessed March 5, 2010.

  • National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). (2010b). Avian flu. http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/avianflu. Accessed March 5, 2010.

  • Orrenius, P. M., & Zavodny, M. (2009). Do immigrants work in riskier jobs? Demography, 46(3), 535–551.

    PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Osypuk, T. I., Subramanian, S. V., Kawachi, I., & Acevedo-Garcia, D. (2009). Is workplace smoking policy equally prevalent and equally effective among immigrants? Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 63, 784–791.

    PubMed Central  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Osypuk, T. I., & Acevedo-Garcia, D. (2010). Support for smoke-free policies: A nationwide analysis of immigrants, U.S.-born, and other demographic groups, 1995–2002. American Journal of Public Health, 100, 171–181.

    PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pastor, M., Jr., Morello-Frosch, R., & Sadd, J. L. (2005). The air is always cleaner on the other side: Race, space, and ambient air toxics exposures in California. Journal of Urban Affairs, 27(2), 127–148.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pastor, M., Jr., Morello-Frosch, R., & Sadd, J. L. (2006). Breathless: Schools, air toxics, and environmental justice in California. Policy Studies Journal, 34(3), 337–362.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pechter, E., Azaroff, L., López, I., & Goldstein-Gelb, M. (2009). Reducing hazardous cleaning product use: A collaborative effort. Public Health Reports, 124(S1), 45–52.

    PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pew Hispanic Center. (2008). Statistical portrait of the foreign-born population in the United States, 2008. http://pewhispanic.org/factsheets/factsheet.php?FactsheetID=59. Accessed February 5, 2010.

  • Quach, T., Nguyen, K. D., Doan-Billings, P. A., Okahara, L., Fan, C., & Reynolds, P. A. (2008). Preliminary survey of Vietnamese nail salon workers in Alameda County, California. Journal of Community Health, 33, 336–343.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Repace, J. L., & Lowrey, A. H. (1985). An indoor air quality standard for ambient tobacco smoke based on carcinogenic risk. New York State Journal of Medicine, 85(7), 381–383.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York (ROC-NY). (2005). Behind the kitchen door: Pervasive inequality in New York City’s thriving restaurant industry. http://www.urbanjustice.org/pdf/publications/BKDFinalReport.pdf. Accessed March 10, 2010.

  • Roelofs, C., Azaroff, L. S., Holcroft, C., Nguyen, H., & Doan, T. (2008). Results from a community-based occupational health survey of Vietnamese-American nail salon workers. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, 10, 353–361.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Schaub, B., Lauener, R., & von Mutius, E. (2006). The many faces of the hygiene hypothesis. The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 117, 969–977.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Scherzer, T., Rugulies, R., & Krause, N. (2005). Work-related pain and injury and barriers to workers’ compensation among Las Vegas hotel room cleaners. American Journal of Public Health, 95(3), 483–488.

    PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Schwebel, D. C., Brezausek, C. M., Ramey, C. T., & Ramey, S. L. (2005). Injury risk among children of low-income U.S.-born and immigrant mothers. Health Psychology, 24, 501–507.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Schwebel, D. C., & Brezausek, C. M. (2009). Language acculturation and pediatric injury risk. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, 11, 168–173.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Seixas, N., Blecker, H., Camp, J., & Neitzel, R. (2008). Occupational health and safety experience of day laborers in Seattle, WA. American Journal of Industrial Medicine, 51(6), 399–406.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Shelley, D., Yerneni, R., Hung, D., Das, D., & Fahs, M. (2007). The relative effect of household and workplace smoking restrictions on health status among Chinese Americans living in New York City. Journal of Urban Health, 84(3), 360–373.

    PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sinclaire, S. A., Smith, G. A., & Xiang, H. (2006). A comparison of nonfatal unintentional injuries in the United States among U.S.-born and foreign-born persons. Journal of Community Health, 31, 303–325.

    Google Scholar 

  • Siqueira, C. E. (2008). A report on Brazilian immigrant workers in Massachusetts. Boston: Collaboration for Better Work Environment for Brazilians (COBWEB). http://www.coshnetwork.org/sites/default/files/Brazilian%20immigrants%20in%20Mass-COBWEB%20rpt.pdf

  • Strong, L. L., Thompson, B., Coronado, G. D., Griffith, W. C., Vigoren, E. M., & Islas, I. (2004). Health symptoms and exposures to organophosphate pesticides in farmworkers. American Journal of Industrial Medicine, 46(6), 599–606.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Tsai, J. H., & Salazar, M. K. (2007). Occupational hazards and risks faced by Chinese immigrant restaurant workers. Family & Community Health, 30(Suppl. 2), S71–S79.

    Google Scholar 

  • United States Government Accountability Office (GAO). (2005). Safety in the meat and poultry industry, while improving, could be further strengthened. http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d0596.pdf. Accessed February 20, 2010.

  • Valenzuela, A., Jr., Theodore, N., Meléndez, E., & Gonzalez, A. L. (2006). On the corner: Day labor in the United States. http://www.urbaneconomy.org/node/44. Accessed February 16, 2010.

  • Villarejo, D., & McCurdy, S. A. (2008). The California agricultural workers health survey. Journal of Agricultural Safety and Health, 14(2), 135–146.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Yang, R., Mills, P. K., & Nasseri, K. (2010). Patterns of mortality in California Hmong, 1988–2002. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, 12(5), 754–760 (published online February 10, 2009).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA

    Doug Brugge

  2. Department of Community Health and Sustainability, School of Health and Environment, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell, MA, USA

    C. Eduardo Siqueira

Authors
  1. Doug Brugge
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. C. Eduardo Siqueira
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Case Western Reserve University, School of Medicine, Cleveland, OH, USA

    Sana Loue

  2. Department of Psychiatry, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA

    Martha Sajatovic

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2012 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

About this entry

Cite this entry

Brugge, D., Siqueira, C.E. (2012). Occupational and Environmental Health. In: Loue, S., Sajatovic, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Immigrant Health. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-5659-0_6

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-5659-0_6

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-5655-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4419-5659-0

  • eBook Packages: MedicineReference Module Medicine

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation