BIO

Danielle Thompson is a sophomore student-athlete and research assistant from Madison, Wisconsin. She is majoring in behavioral neuroscience and has multidisciplinary research interests in the relationship between early life adversity, behavior, health outcomes, and health equity. Currently, she assists with public health policy and pediatric clinical psychology research while competing for the women’s cross country and track teams at FSU. Danielle is committed to excellence, servant leadership, and a process-oriented approach to problem-solving. She plans to pursue a career at the intersection of research, medicine, and society as a physician-scientist. In her spare time, Danielle enjoys volunteering, drinking cold brew, and solving the daily Wordle.

The Dominant Narrative Surrounding Heat-Related Illness Among Agricultural Workers in Print Media

Abstract

Agricultural workers, the vast majority of whom are immigrants from Mexico and Central America, are 20 times more likely to die from heat-related illness than those in all other occupations combined. Therefore, there is a strong public policy interest on the part of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to implement occupational heat-related protections, especially for agricultural workers. Collective opinions or “dominant narratives” about heat-related illness can significantly influence policy decisions; Our research aims to determine and understand the dominant narrative surrounding heat-related illness among agricultural workers in print media. To accomplish this, we are performing a systematic content analysis of all public messages (news reports, articles, etc.) about heat-related illnesses in the agricultural industry between 2017 and 2022. Public messages were harvested from several different databases—such as ProQuest, Factiva, and Nexis Uni—utilizing Zotero. The harvested messages were then transferred to Covidence, in which we eliminated duplicate messages and screened messages in order to ensure they met our criteria: reporting on a specific incidence of heat-related illness. The forthcoming steps include coding the retained articles and analyzing those codes to derive a dominant narrative or collection of dominant narratives. Ultimately, we hope our research can be applied to help inform OSHA policies that protect and advocate for agricultural workers.

Keywords: Health; Health policy; Climate; Farmworker