Southeastern Coastal Center for Agricultural Health and Safety (SCCAHS)

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT The Southeastern Coastal Center for Agricultural Safety and Health (SCCAHS) builds on strong partnerships among health disparate farmworker, fisher and forestry communities, frontline public health practitioners, and scientists engaged in transdisciplinary occupational health research across the Southeast and U.S. Caribbean

regions. The multidisciplinary, inter-institutional network of projects, programs and Cores SCCAHS will implement innovative research approaches and develop tailored, system-driven translation and dissemination strategies drawing from environmental and human toxicology, occupational medicine, public health and

biomedical informatics research. The proposed Center includes an Evaluation and Planning Core (with Administration; Evaluation; Diversity Equity and Inclusion; and Emerging Issues Programs), an Outreach Core, and a Research Core. Proposed research projects and the focus of the Pilot/Feasibility Program include

activities within all four categories detailed in the PAR (basic/etiologic, intervention, translation, and surveillance). Targets areas of concern include respiratory health, chronic kidney disease and musculoskeletal disorders; cross-cutting themes include surveillance and mental health/substance abuse. Research projects

include the following: Category I: Basic/Etiological • Assess Personal Air Particulate and Pesticide Exposure and Respiratory Health Outcomes among Farmworkers in the Southeast (Tara Sabo-Attwood, Environmental and Global Health, UF College of Public Health and Health Professions). • Development of urinary biomarkers of occupational stress in agricultural workers (Christopher Vulpe,

Center for Environmental and Human Toxicology, UF College of Veterinary Medicine) Category II: Intervention • Effectiveness and implementation of self-management strategies for low back pain among aquaculture and horticulture workers (Kimberly Dunleavy, Physical Therapy, UF College of Public Health and Health

Professions) Category III: Surveillance • Detection of Chronic Kidney Disease of Unknown Etiology in Florida by Repurposing a Statewide Data Infrastructure for Surveillance (William Hogan, Health Outcomes and Biomedical Informatics, UF College of Medicine) Category IV: Public Health Translation The Pilot/Feasibility Program will seek to fund new- and early- stage investigators along the translational

science spectrum to study health outcomes at the population level (annual competitive seed funding)