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GLOBVAC-Global helse- og vaksin.forskn

Pesticides and exposures from traditional textile industry associated with own and offspring health in indigenous Guatemalan communities

Alternative title: Pesticider og eksponeringer i tradisjonell tekstilindustri i forhold til egen og barns helse hos urbefolkninger i Guatemala

Awarded: NOK 12.0 mill.

Project Manager:

Project Number:

336422

Project Period:

2023 - 2028

Location:

Partner countries:

Harmful work environments are a global challenge, most prominent in low-income settings. New science suggests toxic exposures may affect germ cells – in both boys and girls - and thereby health and disease in future offspring. If true, radical rethinking of preventive strategies is needed - can also offspring benefit from improved work conditions for parents? This project brings together occupational health and epigenetic experts, anthropologists and civil societies, aiming to generate actionable knowledge on occupational and environmental exposures in indigenous communities in Guatemala and their impact on the workers’ and their offsprings’ health. Using a research governance approach, in alliance with Institute of Nutrition of Central America and Panama (INCAP), Centre for Equity and Governance for Healthcare (CEGGS) and Defenders for the Right to Health (CDRH), this project will build trust and partnership with communities and stakeholders to ensure research results can be acted upon. We will study families of Guatemalan indigenous weavers working in the production of traditional Mayan textiles, and measure occupational and environmental exposure to textile dust, endotoxins, dyes and pesticides in environmental samples, urine and blood. We will analyse how such exposures are related to respiratory health of the workers, and to growth/height and respiratory health of their offspring. Epidemiological analyses will be supported and guided by mechanistic studies of transfer of exposure effects through exposure-related epigenetic signals in sperm (fathers) and in offspring. Citizens-led approaches will be applied to raise awareness among families while shaping policy processes at the local, national and global levels. This unique interdisciplinary project with a two-generation study in neglected population, unprecedented mechanistic work in humans and key partnerships, has the potential to generate high-level insights, relevant to policy and practice on all levels.

Harmful work environments are a global challenge, most prominent in deprived societies. New science suggests toxic exposures may affect germline cells and thereby health and disease in future offspring, and that father’s exposures may be as important as the mother’s. If true, radical rethinking of preventive strategies is needed - can also offspring benefit from improved work conditions in parents? This project brings together occupational health and epigenetic experts, anthropologists and local organizations, aiming to generate actionable knowledge on occupational and environmental exposures in indigenous communities in Guatemala and impact on the workers and their offspring’s respiratory health; and explore epigenetic mechanisms for transfer of exposure effects to offspring; with a research governance approach that builds trust and partnership with communities and stakeholders to ensure the research results can be acted upon. We will study families of indigenous weavers working in the production of traditional Mayan textiles in Guatemala. Occupational and environmental exposure to textile dust, endotoxins and chemical exposures (dyes, pesticides) will be measured in environmental samples, urine and blood. We will analyse how such exposures are associated with respiratory health of the workers, and how mothers and fathers’ exposures relate to growth/height and respiratory health of their offspring. Epidemiological analyses will be supported and guided by mechanistic studies, of how parental exposures relate to offspring DNA methylation and to miRNA in sperm (fathers). Citizens-led approaches will be applied to raise awareness among families while shaping policy processes at the local, national and global levels. This unique interdisciplinary project with a two-generation study in neglected population, unprecedented mechanistic work in humans and key partnerships, has the potential to generate high-level insights, relevant to policy and practice on all levels.

Funding scheme:

GLOBVAC-Global helse- og vaksin.forskn