The increase of the Hispanic population in the United States represents one of the most radical demographic shifts in the history of this country. Now representing 12,5% of the total population (which amounts to 34,3 million people), Latinos are projected to become the largest ethnic minority group in the U.S. by 2025. Hispanics have been found to be disproportionately represented in hazardous and precarious jobs, and their occupational mortality and morbidity profiles are accordingly more alarming than that of other ethnic or racial groups. For example, in 1999, the occupational fatality rate (per 100,000 workers) for all industries was 4.1 for Blacks/African-Americans, 4.4 for non-Hispanic Whites, and 5.2 for Hispanics. Likewise, the number of Hispanics that died from workplace accidents in the construction sector increased by 68 percent from 1996 to 1999. By contrast, the number of Hispanic construction workers rose by merely 20 to 30 percent in that same period. These data underreport the real magnitude of the problem because they do not include the illegal or undocumented Latino immigrants in the United States. Hispanics also have lower access to health services, are under-represented in clinical trials, and live in more polluted communities than their White counterparts. Moreover, these symptoms of environmental injustice and health disparity are more acute at the U.S.-Mexico border, and are prevalent throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.

1. Reduce and eliminate EOSH disparities affecting disproportionately the Hispanic population in the United States;

2. Promote and protect Hispanic EOSH across the Region of the Americas;

3. Address pressing EOSH issues that are of special relevance to Hispanics such as health insurance coverage, access to and quality of health services, research and clinical trials, racial and ethnic sensitive data, discrimination, environmental justice, community health, border issues, and the like;

4. Strengthen the technical capacity of international organizations, federal agencies and Hispanic-serving institutions at all levels (national, state, local and community-based) to make effective collaborative and inter-sectoral interventions;

5. Create awareness and educate workers, employers, civil society, government and other relevant actors about Hispanics' special EOSH needs;

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• Research the scope and document the extent of the problem;
• Identify a short list of areas/issues that pose the most concern; and
• Establish a partnership with stakeholders in order to design model strategies to meet the above-mentioned goals.

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Updated August 10th^th 2001

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