Emory University and FWAF Team Up to Study and Fight Heat-Related Illness

Nezahualcoyotl Xiuhtecutli

Over the course of two years, from 2015 to 2017 and across the State of Florida the Farmworker Association of Florida in Collaboration with Emory University’s Woodruff School of Nursing carried out a program to study the effects of heat-related illness among farmworkers in the state in the Los Girasoles Research Project. The aim of the program was threefold: 1) to collect information on how the daily exposure to the heat that farmworkers go through everyday affects their bodies, especially their kidneys; 2) bring to the communities we serve an opportunity to have the results of physiological measurements that inform them of their overall health at no cost to them; and 3) to gather enough information about heat exposure on farmworkers to better serve our communities and advocate for better working conditions using real data.

In the span of the three years the project took, Emory University nurses and FWAF staff set up shop at each of the five offices of the Association in Pierson, Apopka, Immokalee, Fellsmere, and Homestead where farmworkers agreed to participate in the project. At the end of their participation, farmworkers received information from their samples that included their glucose, potassium, creatinine, and iron levels, and specific gravity levels in their urine, which contained information on their hydration levels. They also received information on their body mass and body fat indices. All of this information can be very useful to prevent serious illnesses later in life. In addition to the results, farmworkers participating in the Los Girasoles received a compensation of $30 for their time and inconvenience in a gift card from a grocery store in their area.

Given the private nature of the information collected, none of the participants was identified by name, but a woman who participated in Apopka expressed her satisfaction talking about the benefit of taking part in the study. “It had been a long time since I had been to the doctor, and I was a little worried. And I did want to know about my blood, to make sure everything was working as it should,” she said during an interview.

The study also sought to gather information about the heat-related illness symptoms farmworkers had experienced while working. These symptoms include excessive sweating, headaches, dizziness, muscle cramps, nausea and vomiting, confusion, and fainting. “These symptoms can build on one another and get worse over time, leading to a serious illness, disease, or even death. It is very important that farmworkers learn to recognize them in the beginning and take steps to cool down their temperature when working in hot areas,”  said Abby Mutic, a doctoral candidate at the Emory University School of Nursing. "Some examples of ways to cool down include: drink cool or cold water, sit down, rest in the shade, find air flow, and wrap a wet cloth around the neck," she added.

FWAF has been sharing the results of the study with the each of the communities taking part in the study. As of this writing, community results have been presented in Pierson, Apopka, and Immokalee. At these events, the team invited participants and other members of the community to attend a presentation in which a FWAF staff member of the Los Girasoles Project explained what the study had discovered about how the community was doing healthwise based on those results. Fellsmere and Homestead were the last two communities working with the project and they will get presentations on those results soon.

More work on heat-related illness is set for next spring in Homestead. Stay tuned for information.