CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS
Tribal Rights and Fish Consumption Workshop
Fish consumption rates are frequent drivers for making water quality decisions in our region, such as determining cleanup standards. However, current rates are much lower than the amount of fish native groups once consumed as part of their traditional heritage and diet. Less fish are available to these groups because rivers, lakes, and marine waters may be contaminated and access to water resources may be limited. As a result, decisions based on current fish consumption rates do not accurately reflect the needs of these communities.
Fish in the Pacific Northwest represent an essential cultural, spiritual, nutritional, and ceremonial resource for tribes. Tribal perspectives and tribal government contexts are needed to inform state and federal government-level decisions. Rarely, however, do tribal government representatives and scientists—including fisheries biologists, toxicologists, ecologists, and nutritionists—sit side-by-side and consider the challenging issues inherent in the relationship between tribal rights and fish consumption.
That changed in August 2009 when dozens of academicians, government agency representatives, environmental advocates, private-sector individuals, and students from Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Alaska attended the “Tribal Rights and Fish Consumption Workshop: Issues and Opportunities for the Pacific Northwest” at the University of Washington (UW). Twenty-seven of the participants represented 14 tribes.
The workshop covered legal, cultural, and health dimensions of tribal rights and fish consumption and highlighted efforts that have successfully incorporated needs of local tribal groups in the development of cleanup standards for contaminated waters. Sponsors and participants also contributed resources related to tribal rights and fish consumption to the workshop’s website.
The workshop was sponsored by the UW Institute for Risk Analysis and Risk Communication, the UW Pacific Northwest Center for Human Health and Ocean Studies, and the Research Translation and Outreach Core of the UW Superfund Research Program.
Western Migrant Stream Forum
Better Health for Hispanic Communities in Idaho
Professor Matthew Keifer and Pacific Northwest Agricultural Safety and Health Center (PNASH) Research Coordinator Rachel Schwartz described a unique educational outreach project at the February 2010 Western Migrant Stream Forum sponsored by the Northwest Regional Primary Care Association. The meeting in Seattle brought together researchers, clinicians, and public health professionals to discuss policies, clinical issues, and outreach and educational practices that impact farmworker health, and in particular, migrant farmworker health.
Keifer and Schwartz are project evaluators for the Idaho Partnership for Hispanic Health, which works to improve the health and well-being of Hispanics in two rural communities in southwest Idaho. At the forum, they showcased Compañeros en Salud or Partners in Health, an educational wellness program taught by Ignacio Cornejo and Martha Saldivar. The aim of the project is to improve nutrition and increase physical activity in order to lower the participants’ risk of metabolic syndrome, indicated by a combination of conditions that include obesity, high blood pressure, and elevated glucose.
More than 500 participants have been pre-enrolled in the project. Results from the first pilot of 10 families were promising, and showed that participants were increasing their exercise as well as consumption of fruits and vegetables while decreasing consumption of fried and junk food. Fifty-three percent of the surveyed family members moved from suboptimal to optimal health.
The Idaho Partnership for Hispanic Health is a collaboration among PNASH, the Mountain States Group, and the Centro de Comunidad y Justicia. The partnership works with the Idaho Commission on Hispanic Affairs, Weiser Memorial Hospital, and Elmore Medical Center. Funding for the project was provided by the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities, which is part of the National Institutes of Health.
Annual Agricultural Safety Day
The Pacific Northwest Agricultural Safety and Health Center staffed educational booths for agricultural workers at the Annual Agricultural Safety Day on March 3, 2010, in Yakima, Washington. Pictured below is PhD student Jenna Armstrong, who is using florescent tracer, an educational tool to show workers how pesticide contamination can occur and to help workers evaluate their practices and protective equipment to reduce exposure.
Photo by Elizabeth Sharpe
