Meredith Spivak, the CAHL study coordinator, has been awarded a training grant from the Professional Opportunities Program (PTOP) through the Northwest Center for Occupational Health and Safety to investigate sex differences in acute pesticide poisonings among agricultural workers in the Pacific Northwest.
A growing body of literature suggests that women working in agriculture may have a greater risk of pesticide exposure than men. This is particularly important as there has been a marked increase in the percentage of farmworkers who are women over the past several decades.
The PTOP grant is awarded to students and non-profit staff from organizations that are interested in developing Occupational Health and Safety expertise and is meant to support education and training in this area. Dr. Curl serves as Ms. Spivak’s mentor on this project.
Ms. Spivak will analyze data from calls to the Nebraska Regional Poison Control Center as well as occupational acute pesticide poisoning data in Washington and Oregon from the Sentinel Event Notification System for Occupational Risks (SENSOR)-Pesticides program at the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health. She aims to compare the incidence of acute pesticide poisonings for women and men working in agriculture as well as to analyze factors contributing to these exposures. In addition, she will work to understand the methods for data collection and analysis of state and national pesticide exposure monitoring data. The results of this study will be presented at various outreach events.