Partnership for Citrus Worker Health.  In 2003, FWAF and the Florida Prevention Research Center at the University of South Florida began a community/academic research study, funded by the Centers for Disease Control, that is focused on health issues of citrus workers related to eye injuries.  Project activities, which include pilot testing protective eyewear and training camp health aides to provide health education in labor camps and at worksites, aim to improve eye safety among Latino and Haitian citrus workers in Southwest Florida.  The project is guided by a Community Advisory Board whose members are citrus workers, harvesting contractors, growers, public health professionals, and representatives of local religious and civic organizations. 

Lake Apopka Environmental Health Study.  From 2005 – 2006, the Farmworker Association conducted 148 community health surveys with former Lake Apopka farmworkers to document their health problems that may be connected to their chronic exposure to organochlorine pesticides and other agricultural chemicals via direct spray, pesticide drift, fish consumption, and potential groundwater contamination.  The project culminated in the publishing of a 53-page report that details multiple health problems experienced by the community, including skin disorders, respiratory problems, reproductive health problems, and autoimmune disorders such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.  In 1998, the state of Florida passed legislation to purchase and close approximately 13,000 acres of farmland on Lake Apopka, since decades of chemical runoff had made Lake Apopka the most contaminated lake in Florida.  More than 2,000 farmworkers lost their jobs, and in many cases their housing, when the state bought out the farms.  In the winter of 1998-99, approximately 1,000 fish-eating birds were found dead on Lake Apopka.  In June 2001, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a report which concluded that elevated levels of organochlorine pesticides were responsible for the bird deaths.  Numerous studies have also documented reproductive abnormalities and immune suppression in Lake Apopka alligators, fish, and turtles.  Though extensive research has been done on Lake Apopka wildlife, little has been done to assess the health of thousands of farmworkers who lived and worked in and around the fields for decades.  The Lake Apopka Environmental Health Study report is currently being used to seek improvements to health care delivery for the South Apopka community. 

Together for Agricultural Safety.  From 1998 – 2003, FWAF was the community partner in a collaborative research effort, funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, with the University of Florida’s Department of Health Policy and Epidemiology and Best Start Social Marketing.  Project staff members conducted and analyzed 14 interviews with healthcare providers, 16 focus groups with workers, and 382 surveys with workers in the nursery and fernery industries.  Through this project, a health and safety intervention and communication plan, including the development of a hand-washing poster campaign and the FWAF-designed portable hand-washing station, was developed that targets workers, supervisors, growers/owners, and health care providers.  The project focused on hand-washing as a behavior change that could engage all stakeholders, and that could reduce the adverse effects of pesticide exposure.  FWAF continues to implement the hand-washing education intervention for farmworkers developed as part of this project.