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The Western Center for Agricultural Health and Safety (WCAHS) is one of nine National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health-funded agricultural health and safety centers. It was created to improve the health and safety of farmers, farm workers and farm families in western agriculture through research, education and public service programs. WCAHS is based at the University of California, Davis, and serves the western region, including California, Arizona, Hawaii, and Nevada. The director of WCAHS is Dr. Marc Schenker, a professor of medicine and public health at the UC Davis School of Medicine.

The WCAHS publishes quarterly newsletters and maintains a blog on western agricultural health and safety.

History
According to the WCAHS website, the center was founded in 1990 through a cooperative agreement with NIOSH. WCAHS is affiliated with the UC Davis School of Medicine and the UC Davis Department of Public Health Sciences. The other agricultural health and safety centers are: Northeast Center for Agricultural and Occupational Health, Pacific Northwest Agricultural Safety and Health Center, Southeast Center for Agricultural Health and Injury Prevention, Southwest Center for Agricultural Health, Injury Prevention and Education, Upper Midwest Agricultural Safety and Health, High Plains Intermountain Center for Agricultural Health and Safety, Central States Center for Agricultural Safety and Health, Great Plains Center for Agricultural Health, and the National Children's Center for Rural and Agricultural Health and Safety.

Projects and outreach
The Center carries out projects of importance to agricultural workers in the western United States. A WCAHS study, the California Heat Illness Prevention Study, found California Central Valley workers to be vulnerable to heat-related illness. WCAHS developed the Dairy Safety Training Program as part of the Worker Occupational Safety and Health Training and Education Program. A WCAHS study found that agricultural injuries occur more often than previously thought. WCAHS also studies teenagers working in agriculture. In Cooperation with the University of California, Los Angeles and the University of California, Berkeley, WCAHS developed the Worker Occupational Safety and Heath Training and Education Program (WOSHTEP) in 2002, which aimed to reduce work related illness and injury among workers in California. Currently, WCAHS is working on research and outreach in the fields of musculoskeletal injury and ergonomics, neurotoxicity and pesticides, respiratory diseases, industrial hygiene and exposure assessment, socioeconomic impacts on health behaviors, environmental risk assessment, evaluation and biostatistics, costs and financial effects of adverse health outcomes.