Exposure to pesticides has been associated with several adverse health effects. When workers who spray pesticides take contaminated Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and work clothes home, those items pose a risk of cross-contamination. Agriculture employers are recommended to make facilities available for workers to clean and store contaminated items at the workplace to reduce the risk of cross-contamination. However, little research has been conducted on forestry workers, for whom at-work cleaning and storage facilities may be less feasible. Working for Water (WfW) is a South African programme that focuses on removing invasive alien vegetation and alleviating poverty through providing job opportunities to unemployed individuals in low-income settings. WfW forestry workers use herbicides to remove the invasive vegetation. Unlike agricultural workers, WfW forestry workers undertake projects that are transient and tend to be on mountainous or steep terrain. The work environment poses challenges for at-work access to amenities or facilities to clean and store contaminated PPE. Workers have few alternatives but to take contaminated items home. WfW safety protocols do not currently address the risks associated with take-home residues or indicate how workers should clean and store contaminated items. This study is part of a larger project focusing on developing protocols to reduce the risks of cross-contamination and exposure to residues. This dissertation provides baseline data for improved WfW safety protocols through the exploration of workers’ at-home risks of cross-contamination, and the role that worker perceptions and access to amenities have on cleaning and storing behaviors for contaminated items. The Protocol (Part A) describes the methods used to collect and analyze the data. The Literature Review (Part B) presents the risks of take-home residues associated with cross-contamination and the importance of exploring workers’ perceptions and access to amenities to promote safety compliance. The Article (Part C) explores WfW workers’ cleaning and storing behaviors, what contaminated items are taken home, the workers’ access to amenities in the home, and the workers’ perceived risk of exposure. Questionnaires were administered to 27 WfW workers across three excavation sites (Tokai, Citrusdal and Hermanus) that were selected based on convenience sampling. Findings showed that most of the participants took contaminated items home daily. Many participants (55.2%) did not have access to running water. Access to running water and type of housing influenced whether the contaminated items were washed indoors or outdoors, and how they were washed. WfW participants who lived in a shack were more likely to leave contaminated items on the couch or bed or with other clothing items than those living in permanent dwellings. Those workers were more likely to keep them in a non-permeable transport bag, outside, or separate drawers away from clean items. The majority of subjects (65.5%) perceived exposure to herbicides as dangerous to their health. The participants’ perceived risk was associated with whether they took contaminated PPE items home, but not how they were cleaned or stored. WfW Safety protocols should emphasize the importance of keeping contaminated items contained and reducing contact with household surfaces or clean clothes. Workers’ cleaning and storing practices and their associated risk of crosscontamination are largely determined by the amenities they have access to. For new safety protocols to be effective, they need to be realistic and take into account the constraints workers face
