Today, “I Love NU Week” continues at UNMC with a focus on agricultural innovation.
A cornerstone to UNMC’s success, innovation spans UNMC’s education and research initiatives and is one of the med center’s iTEACH values. Faculty and staff lead innovative breakthroughs in technology, research and education that improves the lives of the agricultural workforce in Nebraska and beyond.
Agriculture
- UNMC’s Department of Environmental, Agricultural and Occupational Health is the leading provider of agricultural health and safety training for the public health workforce in the Midwest.
- Members of the UNMC College of Public Health developed the nation’s first comprehensive assessment of drought and its impact on health.
- UNMC researchers are working to understand, prevent and treat agriculture-related respiratory diseases.
- UNMC is the home of the Central States Center for Agricultural Health and Safety (CS-CASH), which works with ag safety and health partners across a seven-state region and beyond to improve the health and safety of members of the agricultural community.
- CS-CASH efforts include:
- Providing a comprehensive understanding of the burden of occupational injury and illness;
- Documenting injury and illness frequencies and rates in the agricultural workforce;
- Uncovering related exposures, risk factors and costs; and
- Developing preventive strategies that could reduce the burden of injury and illness for rural agricultural workers in Nebraska and beyond.
- CS-CASH’s innovative research projects include:
- A long-term effort to improve safety and increase safety training on cattle feedyards;
- Exploring the health effects and treatment of organic dust inhalation;
- Evaluating and potentially improving the safety of aging agricultural workers when entering and exiting agricultural vehicles to prevent falls;
- Exploring the effects of stress on migrant cattle workers; and
- Investigating new technologies for heat stress mitigation in agriculture.