Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology

Mistreatment of Michigan farmworkers: Researchers document abuses, push for change

Recent research, published in the Labor Studies Journal, documents a range of dehumanizing, stressful, unsafe, and unhealthy workplace and living conditions. In their qualitative research effort, University of Michigan social epidemiologists Lisbeth Iglesias-Rios and Alexis Handal specifically explore the effects of precarious employment and labor exploitation on how they affect the health of farmworkers and their families.

Farms need to recruit US residents before hiring foreign farmworkers. Some skip that step, lawsuits allege.

Lisbeth Iglesias-Ríos and Alexis Handal discuss Michigan Farmworker Project

Farms are allowed to hire foreign workers through the H-2A visa program to help fill labor gaps. But, as several recent lawsuits and federal investigations show, some farms favored H-2A farmworkers over U.S.-based farmworkers willing to do the job.

Identifying air pollution sources in Southwest Detroit

New research from Michigan Public Health

Recently, a University of Michigan School of Public Health research team released a new study in the journal Atmosphere that aims to identify these sources in an area of Michigan with some of the highest levels of air pollution in the country: Southwest Detroit.

U-M partnership with Michigan nail salons promotes better environment for workers, clients

New Project from Aurora Le

Michigan Healthy Nail Salon Cooperative is an online, mobile-friendly training module teaches nail salon owners and employees how to mitigate exposure to chemicals and volatile organic compounds that are ubiquitous in salon products like polishes, removers, artificial nails, adhesives, glues and hardeners.

At U-M, risk from surface contamination of COVID-19 was much lower than air transmission

New research from Michigan Public Health

Air transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind the coronavirus pandemic, was much higher than surface transmission at the University of Michigan, according to a study by researchers at U-M's School of Public Health.

Team of researchers seeks to mitigate flu and other respiratory viruses for children in indoor environments

A team of researchers from the University of Michigan, the University of Pittsburgh, Emory University, Virginia Tech, and Georgetown University are collaborating to investigate the transmission of flu in child care settings. Emily Martin, associate professor of Epidemiology at Michigan Public Health, is co-lead for one of the projects focusing on environmental factors driving flu transmission in child care settings.