Meredith Spivak, an epidemiologist for the Center for Excellence in Environmental Health and Safety, received a Professional Training Opportunities Program in Occupational Health and Safety grant from the Northwest Center for Occupational Health and Safety at the University of Washington. Spivak’s study, “Sex differences in acute pesticide poisonings among agricultural workers in the Pacific Northwest,” will examine pesticide exposure in women farmworkers who make up an increased percentage of the American agricultural workforce.
Limited research suggests that women in agriculture may be at greater risk for pesticide exposure and poisonings than men. Spivak hopes to further the research on sex-specific poisonings and to identify factors that may contribute to any observed differences.