by Emily Walsh, Director of Community Outreach & Mesothelioma Cancer Expert
Agricultural workers face numerous airborne threats every day. Air pollutant emissions, soil fumigants, pesticides, mold, asbestos, and dust are a few of the potential lung health hazards that an agricultural worker can come into contact through work.
Over the past several decades, water flowing from the Colorado River meant for agricultural irrigation has been rerouted, leaving the Salton Sea stagnant—its only inflow from agricultural and industrial runoff.
Potential health risks of wildfire smoke may be magnified due to pesticide application across California’s vast agricultural land and the use of fire retardants to fight fires.
People who work outdoors in California’s Central Valley, especially workers who dig or disturb soil, like agricultural workers, are at risk for Valley Fever.
California’s San Joaquin Valley (SJV) offers a unique opportunity to study how exposure to particulate matter emissions from targeted agricultural practices and activities affect farmworker health.
This issue highlights three students who have worked with WCAHS Associate Director, Dr. Kent Pinkerton, to better understand how exposure to California agricultural particulate matter contributes to allergic airway inflammation.
Alex Castañeda is a 4th year UC Davis graduate student. WCAHS Seed Grant recipient to study air pollution and asthma. Below, he talks about what led him to love science and work to improve agricultural health and safety.
Research that we do at the Western Center for Agricultural Health and Safety (WCAHS) in collaboration with the Air Quality Research Center at the University of California, Davis, proposes new and novel methods to determine from where particulate matter (PM) arises.
