UC DAVIS RESEARCHER AWARDED GRANT TO STUDY HEALTH OF IMMIGRANT FARM-WORKER FAMILIES

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — Marc Schenker, a leading authority on occupational and environmental diseases and respiratory illness at the UC Davis School of Medicine, has received a research grant for more than $500,000 from the California Endowment to study the health of Mexican hired farm workers and their families.

Nicknamed MICASA for Mexican Immigration to California: Agricultural Safety and Acculturation, the study aims to better understand and reduce health risks and related illnesses in the hired farm worker population.

"Agricultural workers face increased risks of respiratory disease, musculoskeletal problems, cancer, hearing loss, reproductive disorders, infectious diseases and stress-related mental health disorders,” said Schenker, professor and chair of the Department of Public Health Sciences. “Our study will assess exposure to dust, toxic chemicals, gasses and other agricultural-related risk factors that contribute to disease and will also develop recommendations to improve farm worker health.”

Researchers will obtain data through an interviewer-administered questionnaire, collecting information on demographics, smoking and other health-related behaviors, acculturation and occupational and environmental risk factors. Four hundred families will be interviewed. Information about the participants’ spouses and children also will be included in the study.

California’s agriculture contributes more than $28 billion annually to the state’s economy. This labor-intensive industry employs approximately one million people each year, most of whom are Mexican immigrants. Agriculture is one of the most hazardous occupations, ranking with mining and construction in the number of occupational fatalities per year. Poverty and changes associated with living in a different culture also contribute to adverse health outcomes in this population. Schenker’s research has also found that some health behaviors may worsen as farm workers and their families move to California from Mexico.

Schenker specializes in studying and reducing the exposures to hazards and disease in the agricultural workplace. His past work has focused on various forms of cancer and on the respiratory, reproductive, and neurological disorders of agricultural workers. .