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Five on Friday: Avian Flu, Farmworkers, and Health Literacy

Five on Friday: Avian Flu, Farmworkers, and Health Literacy

Oct 4, 2024
By: Migrant Clinicians Network
It’s Friday! Let’s take a look at recommended resources and reads from MCN staff. Alma G. reminded us that October is Health Literacy Month! Migrant Clinicians Network is dedicated to providing…
A farmworker in the field looks toward the sun

MCN Applauds Maryland's Heat Illness Regulation, with an Eye on the Health of Farmworkers

Aug 26, 2024
By: Migrant Clinicians Network
In 2024, there was a record-breaking eight 100-degree days in Baltimore, Maryland and with the increasing global temperature, this record likely will continue to be broken yearly. Hotter weather…
Quick Response, Improved Surveillance, and Excessive Heat: Factors in the Rise of Avian Flu Cases

Quick Response, Improved Surveillance, and Excessive Heat: Factors in the Rise of Avian Flu Cases

Jul 18, 2024
By: Migrant Clinicians Network
The headlines are head turning: almost 70 suspected cases of H5N1 (also known as avian flu or bird flu) in workers at a Colorado poultry farm. If confirmed, the number of worker cases would…
Equipping Climate Workers to Stay Safe: Health and Safety Training with MCN and Resilience Force in New Orleans

Equipping Climate Workers to Stay Safe: Health and Safety Training with MCN and Resilience Force in New Orleans

Mar 21, 2024
By: Migrant Clinicians Network
Earlier this month, Migrant Clinicians Network’s Amy Liebman, MPA, MA, and Alma Galván, MHC, headed to New Orleans to meet up with organizers and workers from Resilience Force, a national…
The Ripple Effect of Climate-Induced High Heat: One Step Beyond Heat Stress, a Myriad of Health Effects

The Ripple Effect of Climate-Induced High Heat: One Step Beyond Heat Stress, a Myriad of Health Effects

Sep 7, 2023
By: Migrant Clinicians Network
Even as this record-breaking hot summer winds down, some parts of the country continue to experience unprecedented high heat days, giving a disturbing preview of climate crisis-fueled summers to…
Supervisor Believed Construction Worker Was on Drugs. He Was Dying of Heat Stress.

Supervisor Believed Construction Worker Was on Drugs. He Was Dying of Heat Stress.

Jul 27, 2023
By: Migrant Clinicians Network
This week, the mother of Gabriel Infante sued his employer for $1 million, one year after the 24-year-old died of heat stress on the job. Infante’s supervisor believed he was on drugs – when in…
It’s Hot, But Do Workers Have to Die?

It’s Hot, But Do Workers Have to Die?

Jul 11, 2023
By: Migrant Clinicians Network
June 2023 was the hottest month on record. Last Monday, July 3rd, was the hottest day this planet has ever seen – until Tuesday came along. Then Thursday became the hottest day ever, capping the…
Why Respiratory Risks like Smoke Hit Low-Income Workers the Hardest

Why Respiratory Risks like Smoke Hit Low-Income Workers the Hardest

Jun 8, 2023
By: Claire Hutkins Seda
(Hint: Low-income people of color like agricultural workers have increased susceptibility to respiratory distress because of the body’s persistent state of stress, from poverty, racism, poor diet,…
Farmworkers Push for Community-Led Pesticide Exposure Surveillance Tool, Understanding of Farmworker Needs at PACT Event

Farmworkers Push for Community-Led Pesticide Exposure Surveillance Tool, Understanding of Farmworker Needs at PACT Event

Jun 7, 2023
By: Migrant Clinicians Network
At Wunsch Farms, a sixth-generation family farm in Traverse City, Michigan, cardboard fruit packing boxes and a forklift in a large clean warehouse show the readiness of the farm as cherry season…
Workers lay pavement

Heat Stress: Where Health Inequity Meets Climate Change

Feb 16, 2022
By: Claire Hutkins Seda
In January, Colorado became the latest state to adopt heat stress regulations to protect farmworkers and other outdoor workers from the higher temperatures and more frequent heat events that are…
Farmers installing irrigation equipment in the dark

Overtime Pay: Why Are Farmworkers Excluded?

Feb 10, 2022
By: Migrant Clinicians Network
Last week, the New York State Wage Board passed three resolutions that will finally provide overtime for farmworkers working for more than 40 hours a week. The resolutions also delineate a ten-year…
A worker in a warehouse

MCN Position Statement: Climate-Integrated Disaster Preparedness Needed to Protect Most Vulnerable Workers

Dec 14, 2021
By: Migrant Clinicians Network
Unprecedented tornados ripped through large swaths of the Midwest on Friday, killing dozens including many workers across multiple states. In Kentucky, eight people died at work at a candle factory…
A farmworker in the field

Heat Kills Workers, Standards Save Lives: MCN Comments on Maryland Heat Standard

Sep 15, 2021
By: Migrant Clinicians Network
Heat stress kills food and farmworkers – and every heat-related illness that these workers experience can be prevented. Maryland Occupational Safety and Health (MOSH) is drafting a much-needed…
CHW speaks with a farmworker

Workplace Protections for Essential Workers Must Consider RIM Communities

Jun 1, 2021
By: Migrant Clinicians Network
While COVID-19 is a public health threat to the entire US population, there is growing evidence that the outbreak disproportionately affects some populations, including certain refugee, immigrant and…
A machine spraying pesticide in orchard

Long Path to Nationwide Ban: Chlorpyrifos and Farmworker Health

May 5, 2021
By: Migrant Clinicians Network
Last week, after years of effort from environmental health and farmworker advocates, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to essentially ban…
A vehicle spraying pesticides on a field

EPA Weakens Pesticide Standards; Endangers Health of Rural Communities

Nov 5, 2020
By: Migrant Clinicians Network
Last week, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rolled back a critical safeguard for farmworker health: the application exclusion zone, or AEZ. The AEZ is an important part of the Worker…
Farmworkers load a truck

MCN’s Liebman and Dr. Madaras: Health Disparities, Barriers Increase Farmworkers’ Risk of COVID-19

Oct 22, 2020
By: Migrant Clinicians Network
On Tuesday, two staff members from Migrant Clinicians Network (MCN) presented to the National Advisory Council on Migrant Health (NACMH) on farmworker health in the midst of the pandemic. The day…
Workers harvesting apples

What’s the Impact of COVID-19 on Food and Farmworkers? MCN’s Amy Liebman Joins Marylanders to Discuss

Oct 6, 2020
By: Migrant Clinicians Network
The impact of COVID-19 has not been spread equally. Within the exploitative structures of industrial agriculture, farm and food workers have frequently been unable to keep themselves safe on the…
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Call to Action: Protect Maryland Farmworkers from COVID-19

Jul 22, 2020
By: Migrant Clinicians Network
This week, Migrant Clinicians Network joined 108 organizations in asking Maryland Governor Larry Hogan to enact emergency orders to protect farmworkers and poultry and seafood workers from COVID-19…
Clinicians gather outside wearing PPE

Is COVID-19 Airborne? Q&A with Dr. Chad Roy and Dr. Ed Zuroweste

Jun 17, 2020
By: Claire Hutkins Seda
New Studies on Airborne TransmissionDuring the webinar, Dr. Zuroweste described two recent epidemiological studies that highlight the risks associated with the aerobiology of COVID-19. One research…
Meat processing plant workers

We’re not blaming the elderly. We’re not blaming healthcare workers. So why do we accuse essential workers for being sickened and killed by COVID-19?

May 27, 2020
By: Amy Liebman
By Amy K. Liebman, MPA Director of Environmental and Occupational Health, Migrant Clinicians Network, Salisbury, MD Each day I watch in utter dismay the increasing numbers of COVID-19 cases among…
A meat processing plant worker

Position Statement: Racist Rhetoric About Workers Must Stop; Emergency Protections Must Increase

May 8, 2020
By: Migrant Clinicians Network
Migrant Clinicians Network is gravely concerned about the implications and repercussions of recent comments about the cultures and personal lives of essential workers in meatpacking plants. The…
A worker on a processing line at a poultry plant

Worker Safety is Safety for All of Us

Apr 21, 2020
By: Amy Liebman
Photo by Earl Dotter By Amy K. Liebman, Director of Environmental and Occupational Health, Migrant Clinicians Network “There are mountains beyond mountains. The struggle continues.” Citing the…
A construction worker wearing a mask and protective equipment

Masks for Fires: Kathryn Conlon, PhD, MPH Analyses new California Emergency Wildfire Smoke Regulation For Outdoor Workers

Sep 25, 2019
By: Claire Hutkins Seda
For two weeks in November, 2018, the California sun was almost extinguished. The Camp Fire, which quickly became the deadliest wildfire in California history, was torching the northern foothill…
Orange trees in an orchard

Antibiotics in Orange Groves: Resistance for the Masses, Unknown Health Consequences for the Farmworkers

Jul 2, 2019
By: Claire Hutkins Seda
In May, the New York Times ran an article on the recent and significant increase in the use of antibiotics on orange groves in Florida to combat citrus greening disease, a bacterial infection…
Construction worker on scaffolding

Workers’ Memorial Day

Apr 29, 2019
By: Jordana Oman
In June 2018, 24-year-old Mexico native Miguel Angel Guzman Chavez collapsed while picking tomatoes in a field in Colquitt County, Georgia. At the time that he fell ill, the temperature in fields…