Curl Agricultural Health Lab Post-Doctoral Fellow Carly Hyland and HERC Fellow Alejandra Hernandez were featured on KTVB for their research on pesticide exposure and risk perceptions among Idaho’s Latinx farmworkers.
The team is led by Hyland and includes Hernandez as an undergraduate research assistant, Public Health and Population Science Associate Professor Cynthia Curl, Sociology Professor Rebecca Castellano and School of Public Service Professor Lisa Meierotto.
“In general, we have seen a lot of evidence that pesticide exposure among farmworkers is associated with a range of adverse health outcomes – some of them being neurodevelopment, increased risk of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease, increased risk of cancer,” Hyland said in the KTVB interview.
Hernandez, a former farmworker, said this study is a way to start raising awareness of the risks farmworkers face.
“It’s not to criticize the farmers. We just want the farmers to look at this and say, ‘oh, well in this study people are saying they are not getting the right training,” Hernandez said in the KTVB interview.
As part of an effort to make their research more accessible to Idaho’s Spanish-speaking community, the team will work to develop materials that communicate the results of the study and promote risk education strategies in both English and Spanish versions.