Five on Friday: Worker Deaths from Using Methylene Chloride and Teenager Develops Heat-related Illness App
As the holidays ramp up, our free time gets sucked away. Here, we’ve collected a few health justice pieces that MCN staff read this week, in case you missed some of the stories that matter. What did you read that you recommend to us? Let us know on Facebook. Why is dangerous chemical in common paint strippers still on the market? Amy, Director of Environmental and... Read More
Lead Community Health Worker Toña Sanchez visits with migrant kids. Photo: The Next Door, Inc. When wildfires hit Oregon earlier this year, farmworkers suffered. Despite official recommendations to stay indoors, harvest season continued -- and many workers could not afford to skip work. Respiration-related concerns drove up admissions to hospitals around the Columbia Gorge region. Many areas... Read More
[Editor's Note: We at MCN are saddened to hear of Leslie's passing. Here, we reprint a touching memorial written by Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH, at the Pump Handle. Read the original blog post here, that includes pictures of Leslie and lots of comments from our colleagues.]The occupational health and safety community is mourning the death of Leslie Nickels, MEd, PhD, who passed away earlier this... Read More
Five on Friday: Wage Theft of Harvey Reconstruction Workers and Caring for Migrant Health Care Workers
December has arrived! Before you dive into the weekend’s festivities, take amoment to read some interesting articles and perspectives on migrant health! Here are five pieces from this week recommended by MCN staff. Study: 26% of Hurricane Harvey Reconstruction Workers Said They Experienced Wage Theft or No Pay Amy, Director of Environmental and Occupational Health,... Read More
In the leadup to the 2016 summer Olympics, migrants arrived in Brazil in droves to build the infrastructure necessary to host the games. After the work was completed, many migrants, particularly from disaster-torn Haiti and economically depressed parts of West Africa, began a very long journey north. Along the way, most spent the meager savings they had. Many died. And some of them... Read More
This week, MCN’s Juliana Simmons, MSPH, CHES, Environmental and Occupational Health Program Manager, arrived in Las Vegas to facilitate a focus group with childcare providers and growers -- an uncommon pairing of professions that is at the core of Protecting Children While Parents Work, a program of Migrant Clinicians Network and the National Children's Center for Rural Agricultural Health... Read More
Migrant health justice has never been more relevant, more salient, or more urgent. On this Thanksgiving weekend, we send our deep gratitude to the millions of farmworkers who migrate every few weeks to a new farm, to do the backbreaking work required to grow and harvest the staple foods that fill our plates with the tastes, the aromas, the comforts that make up our central memories of... Read More
Thanksgiving is a time of gratitude surrounding a huge feast. Those of us advocating year-round for farmworkers take the time at Thanksgiving to express gratitude for the hardworking people who harvest and process our foods, often under dangerous conditions, and usually for a very low wage. Memes, gratitude posts, op-eds -- we do lots of talking around our gratitude for farmworkers, but... Read More
Honoring Dedication to Worker Health and Safety: Sara Quandt and Tom Arcury Receive Alice Hamilton Award
Photo: thepumphandle.org Look up the latest and most compelling research on occupational safety and health among the most unprotected and neglected workers in this country -- migrant farmworkers, or poultry processing plant workers, or construction workers -- and two names will crop up immediately: Thomas Arcury, PhD, and Sara Quandt, PhD. Last weekend at the American Public Health... Read More
Five on Friday: How a Small Hospital in Puerto Rico Survived Hurricane Maria and Rural America’s Disappearing Maternity Care
National Rural Health Week is coming to a close. For issues including disaster response, the opioid epidemic, and agricultural worker health and safety, clinicians serving rural patients take extra steps to assure health access and proper health care for rural patients -- taking into account the social determinants of health that a rural patient faces, for example. Part of this task... Read More
