SW Ag Center awarded $7 million for agricultural health and safety

TYLER – The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) awarded the Southwest Center for Agricultural Health, Injury Prevention, and Education (SW Ag Center) a five-year grant to conduct research and outreach to improve the safety and health of agricultural, commercial fishing, and forestry workers (AgFF). According to a news release, this will be the sixth consecutive five-year award from NIOSH for the SW Ag Center. Over the next five years, researchers will investigate the role of organic dust in lung inflammation and characterize worker health status on western U.S. dairy farms. An intervention project will address health disparities among commercial fishermen, and a surveillance project will integrate motor vehicle crash and injury data in AgFF sectors.

The SW Ag Center was created in 1995 at The University of Texas at Tyler Health Science Center to serve Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas as part of a program initiative of NIOSH. The initiative established centers to conduct research and outreach to reduce occupational injuries and illnesses among agricultural workers and their families, according to the release.