Environmental Health

Today is the final day of Farmworker Awareness Week, which culminates each year on March 31st, Cesar Chavez’s birthday. 

[Editor’s Note: We are in the final days of Farmworker Awareness Week, and we’d like to highlight one MCN program working to improve environmental health for farmworkers.

Ver en español

Last week, our Environmental and Occupational Health team headed to Puerto Rico for a train-the-trainer session at Hospital General Castañer, a community health center located in the mountains in the heart of the island, where coffee, oranges, and plantains are grown.  The two-day workshop gave the local health center’s outreach staff training in chemical safety, heat stress, and workers’ rights.  The outreach staff will then train workers in these topics. 

We’ve had another very busy week at MCN. Here are some updates from the world of public health and health justice that we thought you’d enjoy, chosen by MCN staff members.

1. Del, Director of International Projects, Research, and Development, sent Premier, Inc.’s moving video on Health Network, which they created in celebration of Health Network’s Premier Cares Award.

Friday is once again tugging on our brains, luring us into the weekend… What are your plans for this weekend? Care to add a little bit of health justice reading into the mix? Here are a few recommendations from MCN staff.

This week, clinicians and health justice advocates from across the West Coast have gathered in Portland, Oregon for the 2016 Western Forum for Migrant and Community Health. The Western Forum features over 30 breakout sessions, and MCN is proud to co-facilitate three of those sessions, addressing key issues at the forefront of migrant health. 

Yesterday, Migrant Clinicians Network’s Juliana Simmons, MSPH, CHES, Environmental and Occupational Health Program Manager presented on MCN’s Protecting Children While Parents Work project in Virginia.

Our Five on Friday blog posts are always a joyous reminder of how many organizations and individuals are working toward the same goals: health justice, a voice for marginalized populations like the mobile poor, rights for farmworkers... It’s thrilling to hear what other organizations are up to, and how we can lean on each other to grow our movement stronger. Plus, it’s Friday -- that’s a joyous thing, too, for those of us on a five-day work week.

In its current issue, the Journal of Agromedicine celebrated the work of Kevin Keaney, chief of US Environmental Protection Agency’s Certification and Worker Protection Branch. Keaney is a driving force for worker protections against pesticides, as is evident in his long history of successes at the EPA, including the momentous announcement of revisions to the EPA’s Worker Protection Standard (WPS), which were released in 2015.