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Farmworker girl coughs into hands

Pesticide Poisoning in Monterey: 17 Sick Workers, No Violations

Aug 16, 2018
By: Claire Hutkins Seda
"I began crying because I couldn't breath and my vision was blurred," one unidentified worker said."I had a severe headache, nausea, sore throat and numb feet," another employee said.In the early…
Woman farmworker putting on scarf

Medical-Legal Partnership: Helping Pregnant Agricultural Workers Avoid Pesticide Exposure with Aaron Voit, Esq.

Aug 7, 2018
By: Claire Hutkins Seda
photo credit: Alan PogueIn the spring, the California Department of Pesticide Regulation announced that 209 million pounds of pesticide active ingredients were used in 2016 across the green fields of…
Man stands in front of dairy production

New Research: Dairy Farm Owners Mobilized to Reduce Hazards

Jul 12, 2018
By: Claire Hutkins Seda
Agricultural work continues to be one of the most dangerous professions in the country. Dairy, in particular, has relatively high injury and fatality rates. Exempted from most labor regulations and…
Kids on a farm

US Children Need Protection, Too: World Day Against Child Labor

Jun 12, 2018
By: Caitlin A. Fish J.D.
photo: Earl DotterToday is World Day Against Child Labor. Here in the US, we assume that children are protected from our most dangerous jobs, like mixing and applying pesticides. We scorn images of…
Patricia M. Juarez-Carillo receiving award

MCN Paper on Immigrant Dairy Worker Safety & Health Trainings Wins Sara Mazelis Paper of the Year Award!

Apr 17, 2018
By: Claire Hutkins Seda
Left to right: Adenike Bitto, Patricia M. Juárez-Carrillo, and Elaine AuldMigrant Clinicians Network’s Seguridad en las lecherías project has once again been honored, this time for a journal article…
Child Eating Food

Farmworkers deserve protection from pesticides: Defend important regulations and take part in National Farmworker Awareness Week #NFAW2018

Mar 29, 2018
By: Claire Hutkins Seda
Farmworkers face substantial health risks at their jobs, including exposure to pesticides. At Migrant Clinicians Network, we have spent decades fighting for a stronger Worker Protection Standard, and…
man spraying pesticides on plants

Pesticide Poisoning in Monterey: What Went Wrong and What Comes Next?

Jul 5, 2017
By: Claire Hutkins Seda
Last month, we wrote about a pesticide poisoning that sickened over 50 agricultural workers in Bakersfield; the neurotoxic pesticide chlorpyrifos is thought to be responsible. A month later and 200…
physician at computer

Tech and Ag: Using EHRs to Better Identify and Train Agricultural Workers on Occupational Exposures

Jun 14, 2017
By: Claire Hutkins Seda
Fernando* had worked in agriculture on and off for six years. He drove out to the local apple orchards for four months out of the year, pruning, fertilizing, applying pesticides, and harvesting.…
man standing in field of smoke

Pesticide Poisoning of Farmworkers in Bakersfield

May 10, 2017
By: Claire Hutkins Seda
Last week, more than 50 agricultural workers were sickened when exposed to pesticides while working in a cabbage field near Bakersfield, California. "We started getting an odor, pesticide odor,…
coffee beans with fair trade usa logo

Fair Trade Arrives on US Farms

May 4, 2017
By: Claire Hutkins Seda
This week, Fair Trade standards for US-grown products went into effect, potentially changing the scope of Fair Trade in the US market and promising a new model of fair labor practices, social justice…
Community healh workers discussing health issues

In the Field: Reaching Rural CHWs in Puerto Rico

Apr 20, 2017
By: Alma Galván
On Thursday, April 6th, I had the pleasure of leading a workshop with Jose Rodriguez, MD, in Lares, a town in the heart of Puerto Rico well known for the coffee they produce. The goal of the workshop…
streamline newsletter winter-spring 2017

Top 4 Reasons To Drop Everything and Read the New Issue of Streamline Now

Mar 30, 2017
By: Claire Hutkins Seda
Streamline is here! And we’re convinced that you should share our slightly-over-the-top exuberance on the publication of the latest issue of our quarterly clinical publication. That’s because this…
warning sign danger pesticides

MCN’s Top Five Pesticide Resources for National Poison Prevention Week

Mar 23, 2017
By: Claire Hutkins Seda
It’s National Poison Prevention Week. Agricultural workers are at a heightened risk for poisonings from pesticides -- and clinicians need the tools to be able to best recognize and manage a poisoning…
In the Field: Interactive Safety in the Workplace Trainings in Rural Oregon & Washington

In the Field: Interactive Safety in the Workplace Trainings in Rural Oregon & Washington

Mar 22, 2017
By: Claire Hutkins Seda
Last week, MCN’s Alma R. Galván, MHC and Ileana Ponce-Gonzalez, MD, MPCH, CNC met up in some of the most agriculturally productive regions in the country for back-to-back occupational health and…
Amy K. Liebman and Jimmy Roberts, MD, MPH at West Kauai Medical Center

In the Field: Frontline Clinicians Recognizing and Managing Pesticide Poisonings in Hawaii

Mar 14, 2017
By: Claire Hutkins Seda
In January 2016, 19 agricultural workers on the Hawaiian island of Kauai re-entered a crop research field owned by seed giant Syngenta Seeds. The field had been recently sprayed with chlorpyrifos…
keeping safe on the horse farm

Seguridad: How to Stay Safe on the Dairy Farm

Feb 23, 2017
By: Claire Hutkins Seda
Imagine you just got a new job. Congratulations! You now work on a dairy farm with hundreds, possibly several thousand 1,500-pound Holstein cows -- but you have never worked with large animals before…
keeping safe on the horse farm

Keeping Safe on the Horse Farm: Resources for Immigrant Workers

Feb 14, 2017
By: Claire Hutkins Seda
How can we best keep immigrant workers safe on the job? Our Seguridad and Communicating Safety projects resulted in popular low-literacy and bilingual safety materials in comic book form, to help…
MCN Statement on Health Justice

New Seguridad Video Highlights Curriculum’s Success on Dairy Farms

Feb 9, 2017
By: Claire Hutkins Seda
Immigrants make up a majority of the workers on US dairy farms. Every day, they toil in one of the most dangerous industries in the country. They work with hundreds of animals weighing 1,500 pounds…
mcn Mosquitoes — and diseases like Zika — flourish when economies tank

MCN Comic: Working with farm animals: Keeping Yourself, Your Family, and Your Community Healthy

Nov 10, 2016
By: Claire Hutkins Seda
Today, Migrant Clinicians Network is proud to release the new comic book, Working with farm animals: Keeping Yourself, Your Family, and Your Community Healthy, offered in English and in Spanish.…
apples

Farmworkers, Post-Brexit: Steady Work, Unsteady Future

Sep 21, 2016
By: Claire Hutkins Seda
Change happens quickly -- or perhaps it just waits for its opportunity to pounce. In February, when Frantisek Seda and Tomas Martinek left the United Kingdom to return to their hometown in the…
Top Five MCN Resources for National Farm Safety and Health Week

Top Five MCN Resources for National Farm Safety & Health Week

Sep 20, 2016
By: Claire Hutkins Seda
National Farm Safety and Health Week is once again upon us. Agriculture continues to be one of the most dangerous industries in the US. Farmworkers are especially prone to occupational injury, in…
MCN In the Field - Going International with the Seguridad Project

In the Field: Going International with the Seguridad Project

Sep 7, 2016
By: Claire Hutkins Seda
This week, Amy K. Liebman, MPA, MA Director of Environmental and Occupational Health, headed to Barcelona, Spain to present Seguridad en las lecherías, an award-winning health and safety…