Technology for Farmworker Communities
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| Audience/Grade: | College Freshman-Graduate |
| Discipline(s): |
Biological Systems and Agricultural Engineering Chemical, Biochemical, Biomolecular Engineering Community-based Service Learning Design Engineering Diversity Engineering Ethics Environmental Engineering General Engineering, Engineering Science Materials Engineering Mechanical Engineering |
| Special Topic(s): | |
| Learning Resource Type: |
Teaching - Project |
| Media Type: |
Unknown |
| Author(s): |
Alice Agogino |
| Description: | This NCIIA (National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance)-funded E-Team is developing a system of products that work together to protect the farmworker of Central California from pesticide exposure. Each day throughout the year, thousands of immigrant men, women and children in the Central Valley of California work in the fields that grow the fruits and vegetables that our nation puts on the dinner table. In the process, they are often exposed to harmful pesticides that compromise their health. Our Seguro product line is specifically designed to mitigate the effects of such pesticide exposure. We are developing two types of products. The Seguro Protective Suit that the farmworker will wear everyday uses materials that work to repel and adsorb pesticides present in the air, on the plants and in the soil. It prevents the pesticides from getting onto the skin or in the lungs of the farm worker. The second product works closely with the suit: the Seguro Sensors are bio-sensors that use a visible light or color change and an audible warning system to alert the farmworker and their family when pesticides are present in the home or in the field. There are currently no products on the market that protect farmworkers from pesticide exposure. In most cases, farmworkers wear their own clothing,which can spread the pesticides to their children's clothing during laundering. The alternative is to discard their clothing on a daily basis. The most common protection they now wear are 100% cotton bandanas, a very poor material for filtering pesticides, or, less often, they wear respirators which have been designed for protection from paint fumes a completely different substance than pesticides. The farm labor contractor does not normally supply any protective gear to the farmworkers. The project team is headquartered in the Berkeley Energy and Sustainable Technologies Lab in 6102 Etcheverry Hall at the University of California at Berkeley. |
| Rating: |
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| Related Resources | |
| Keywords: | Seguro pesticide protection farmworkers |
| Is Component of: |
BEST (Berkeley Energy and Sustainable Technologies) Lab |
| Referenced By: |
E10 Mechanical Engineering Module: Human-Centered Sustainable Product Design |
| Usage Tip | |
| Related ABET Criteria: |
(c) Design a system, component, or process (h) Understand global, economic, environmental, and societal context |
| Use of Resource: |
Good California (or farm country) application of project-based and community-based learning. |
| Difficulty: |
Medium |
| Interactivity Level: |
Low |
| Geocentric Data: | |
| Place Name: | University of California at Berkeley BEST Lab Berkeley Expert Systems Technology Laboratory Berkeley Energy and Sustainable Technologies Laboratory |
| Place Type: | Business |
| Place Location: | 6102 Etcheverry Hall, Berkeley, California 94720 United States |
| West Longitude: | -122.259633 |
| East Longitude: | -122.258861 |
| North Latitude: | 37.876084 |
| South Latitude: | 37.875263 |
| Version Info | |
| Publication Date: | July 2009 |
| Platform/Format: |
WWW |
| Cost: |
Free |
| Download URL: | http://best.me.berkeley.edu/research/farmworkers/info.php |
| Metadata: |
IEEE LOM Record |
| Collection: |
EP on the GO
NEEDS
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