Few studies have examined how handling pesticides affects self-reported pain or discomfort, representing a critical yet under-examined dimension of farmworkers’ overall well-being. Guided by the social determinants of health framework, structural violence theory, and a “normalization of suffering” perspective, we ask: (1) what is the relationship between loading, mixing, or applying pesticides and self-reported musculoskeletal pain/discomfort? (2) When controlling for handling pesticides, what factors are associated with self-reported pain? We address these questions by drawing on the National Agricultural Workers Survey and find that handling pesticides within the past year increases the odds of self-reported pain. We also find that female and indigenous farmworkers have higher odds, net of handling pesticides and other occupational, health, and socioeconomic risk factors. Moreover, female farmworkers who handle pesticides report higher odds of pain relative to males who handle pesticides as well as females and males who do not. We conclude by discussing implications for the extant literature on farmworkers and by providing policy recommendations that may help researchers and policymakers better assess the health risks associated with handling pesticides.

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结构性脆弱性和人类苦难：美国农场工人的杀虫剂和自我报告的疼痛

很少有研究探讨处理农药如何影响自我报告的疼痛或不适，这是农场工人整体福祉的一个关键但尚未得到充分研究的方面。在健康社会决定因素框架、结构性暴力理论和“痛苦正常化”视角的指导下，我们提出以下问题：（1）装载、混合或使用农药与自我报告的肌肉骨骼疼痛/不适之间有什么关系？(2) 在控制处理农药时，哪些因素与自我报告的疼痛有关？我们通过全国农业工人调查来解决这些问题，发现过去一年内处理农药会增加自我报告疼痛的几率。我们还发现，扣除使用农药和其他职业、健康和社会经济风险因素后，女性和土著农场工人的患病几率更高。此外，与处理农药的男性以及不处理农药的男性相比，处理农药的女性农场工人遭受疼痛的几率更高。最后，我们讨论了现有关于农场工人的文献的影响，并提供了政策建议，可以帮助研究人员和政策制定者更好地评估与处理农药相关的健康风险。