Agriculture health and safety gets big boost with donations

Source: Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food

The Canadian Centre for Health and Safety in Agriculture (CCHSA) at the University of Saskatchewan is having a celebratory month, with a 20th anniversary as well as new donations to its “Founding Chairs” program.

The CCHSA held an appreciation event in November to celebrate contributions to its “Founding Chairs” program from some familiar agricultural partners: Farm Credit Canada (FCC), Federated Co-operatives Limited (FCL), the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool (SWP) and a special investment from the University of Saskatchewan (U of S).

The three companies each donated $250,000 towards the program, which provides research funds for special projects, student training and knowledge translation in the area of agricultural health and safety. The University of Saskatchewan committed $125,000 to the program from the Dr. Peter D. Stewart Trust.

“These organizations, Farm Credit Canada, Saskatchewan Wheat Pool and Federated Co-op, are intricately linked to the very people that the CCHSA reaches out to – farm families and workers,” said Dr. James Dosman, Director of the CCHSA.

A portion of the funds will be used to help equip the centre when it makes the move to new headquarters in the Academic Health Sciences Building on the U of S campus. The remainder of the funds will go toward new research projects or ongoing development of existing projects.

Acknowledging two decades of projects and research is also on the agenda for CCHSA in early December. The centre is celebrating the evolution it has undergone since its beginnings as the Centre for Agricultural Medicine. The CCHSA is now co-located with the Institute of Agricultural Rural and Environmental Health (IAREH) at the U of S. It officially turns 20 this month, and its anniversary celebrations are taking place at various locations throughout Saskatoon.

“The anniversary celebrates how the Centre for Agricultural Medicine has kept evolving and growing over the last 20 years to become a national centre of excellence,” said Maura Gillis-Cipywnyk with IAREH.

The CCHSA is now home to a national lab, as well as being linked to a network of 66 scientists working at 14 different universities across the country. The scientists and their research focus on four themes of agricultural health: what we breathe, what we eat and drink, how we work and how we live. “This centre is the first of its kind in Canada,” said Gillis-Cipywnyk.

Anniversary celebrations include several conferences looking at various research issues, including a research conference on farm injuries that examines the issues and competencies that underlie injury prevention strategies.

For more information, contact:

Maura Gillis-Cipywnyk
Institute of Agricultural Rural and Environmental Health
Phone: (306) 966-8302

Leann Labrash
Institute of Agricultural Rural and Environmental Health
Phone: (306) 966-6647