5 year projects
Respiratory health and indoor air quality in the cannabis industry
This project investigates whether exposure to specific airborne contaminants released during cannabis production is associated with adverse health effects in cannabis workers. In addition, this project will evaluate the effectiveness of engineering control to reduce occupational exposure to respiratory hazards. Based on findings in this study, the project aims to develop a guide describing best-practices and incorporate study findings into worker health and safety training materials. This will help cannabis employers comply with applicable occupational health and safety regulations, and to reduce respiratory exposures within this industry.
- Christopher Simpson, PhD, Professor and Assistant Chair for Research and Faculty Engagement, Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences, University of Washington
- Coralynn Sack, MPH, MD, Assistant Professor, Medicine and Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences, University of Washington
Fishermen led injury prevention program (FLIPP) for lifejackets mobile program
The objective of this project is to better understand the behavior of lifejacket use among commercial fishermen in Oregon and Washington and to promote the use by creating a mobile program for commercial fishermen that increases access to lifejackets that they will wear. The project is collecting fishermen’s views and experiences related to vessel safety including use of lifejackets and their stage of behavior change related to lifejacket use, adapting an evidence-based intervention to build a region-specific program, implementing, and evaluating the program, and comparing strategies. This project is using a social marketing approach (the 4 P’s - Price, Product, Place, and Promotion) to get lifejackets to fishermen.
- Laurel Kincl, PhD, CSP, Professor and Associate Dean of Academic & Faculty Affairs, College of Health, Oregon State University
Use of location- and wearable-based occupational activity recognition to quantify on-the-job digital health and safety metrics for the forestry workforce
The major goals and aims of this project are to develop smartwatch-based recognition of human work activities carried out by logging workers during regular productive operations, and to then program these models into a new smartwatch app prototype that can be used to help improve the health and safety of loggers through increased situational awareness. Additionally, this project improves on an existing system developed through prior NIOSH-funded research, making a user-friendly version of a system for sharing the locations of ground workers and heavy equipment working together on logging operations in remote areas.
- Robert F. Keefe, PhD, Associate Professor and Director, University of Idaho Experimental Forest, University of Idaho
Engineering solutions to reduce pesticide exposure and waste on northwest fruit farms
Robots, drones, sensors, autonomous tractors, and other digital technology are quickly changing the landscape of agriculture, including claims related to reducing pesticide use. This project focuses on capturing current and planned uses for these new technologies in the Pacific Northwest and center worker expertise and skills in the next generation of pesticide application safety personnel and technology. This work builds off prior work on pesticide application safety from two previous PNASH cycles.
- Edward Kasner, PhD, MPH, Assistant Teaching Professor, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, University of Washington
- Lav Khot, PhD, MS, Associate Professor, AgWeatherNet Director, College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resources Sciences, Washington State University
Tracking agriculture, forestry, and fishing health indicators: RISC 2.0
This tracking and monitoring project is planning to link data from both emergent systems (e.g. trauma, Emergency Medical Services) and longer-term care (e.g. workers’ compensation) to create a database documenting injuries in agricultural, forestry, and fishing settings. The project will identify work settings and activities that are associated with injuries, describe the nature and severity of injuries, detail injury treatment, and characterize worker groups at greatest risk of injury. The project explicitly pairs surveillance activities with innovative data visualization approaches to promote rapid and scalable translation into practice.
- Viktor Bovbjerg, PhD, MPH, Professor, Oregon State University
Pilot Projects
- Karie Boone, Applied Social Scientist, Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources, Washington State University. Planning for the “new normal”: assessing service organizations' climate-related impacts and resiliency to support farmworkers. Climate-related environmental hazards, including successive high-heat days and poor air quality from wildfire smoke, are projected to continue and worsen, increasing occupational risks for farmworkers in Central Washington. Farmworker support agencies are facing related training and resource provision needs while filling associated support gaps. This project will (a) identify opportunities to better prepare support entities for identified impacts, (b) co-develop a roadmap for advancing climate resilience for farmworkers, and (c) convene entities currently working independently on related topics to explore collaboration opportunities.
- John Flunker, Postdoctoral Scholar, University of Washington. Developing a harmonized method to refine estimates of spatiotemporal variation crop worker exposures to heat and wildfire smoke in rural agricultural regions: Case study among H-2A foreign visa worker applications. This project seeks to refine spatial and temporal estimates of wildfire smoke, heat, and dual exposure among region X crop workers. This project will estimate and compare the burden of exposure (worker days at risk) to wildfire smoke (WFS), heat, and dual exposure among crop worker groups. Spatial variability will be accounted for at a more refined level than the county level via validated modeled WFS and heat exposure data linked to H2A application data and Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) worker counts per crop worker group. Through researcher and stakeholder driven products, the project will address the mission of the PNASH Center to engage agricultural stakeholders to conduct research and promote best practices as well as meet NIOSH NORA AFF and respiratory health goals.
- Leslie Hammer, Professor, Co-Director, Oregon Healthy Workforce Center, Associate Director of Applied Research, Oregon Institute of Occupational Health Sciences, Oregon Health & Science University. Evaluation of the Oregon Overtime Pay Legislation (HB-4002) among Latine Agricultural Workers. This proposal seeks to evaluate the impact of the new Oregon overtime law on farmworkers’ work experiences (e.g., wage theft; work overload; stress; job insecurity) and well-being, including mental health. Oregon passed HB 4002 in 2022, which began its 5-year phase-in to provide overtime pay to agricultural workers starting in January, 2023. Although much is known about the impacts of consistently working overtime and/or low pay on physical health, mental health, sleep, and mortality, little is known about the experiences of farmworkers and their families in reference to working overtime, and, to our knowledge, no work has considered the impact or effectiveness of state-level overtime legislation on farmworkers’ work experiences, mental health and wellbeing.
- Julie Postma, Professor, Associate Dean for Research, College of Nursing, Washington State University. Smoke hazards in the Agricultural Workplace; a bilingual survey for agricultural employers. Agricultural workers are exposed to fine particulate matter from wildfire smoke given the nature of their work. The purpose of the proposed study is to explore and compare perceptions of AQ monitoring, health impacts, and hazard communication strategies among Spanish and English-speaking agricultural employers and employees. Findings from our bilingual survey will be disseminated through peer-reviewed journals, conferences, and industry stakeholders.
