University of Minnesota School of Public Health (SPH) Mayo Professor and Division Head Bruce Alexander has received a seed grant from the University of Minnesota’s Center for Global Health and Social Responsibility (CGHSR) to expand research on how air pollution and pesticide exposure affect the respiratory health of agricultural families in Northern Thailand. The 2026 Seed to R01 Accelerator Grant provides up to $50,000 over two years, along with project management, mentorship, and grant development support.
The study builds on Alexander’s previous work, supported by an CGHSR Global Health Seed Grant, which found that farmers in Thailand experienced fewer respiratory symptoms and biological markers related to oxidative stress and airway injury, and improved quality of life during periods when air pollution levels were lower. The new project expands that work by including entire farming families, allowing researchers to better understand how environmental exposures differ within households and how they influence respiratory health.
“Although this research is taking place in Thailand, the questions we’re asking are highly relevant to agricultural communities everywhere,” said Alexander. “Farmers and farm workers in the United States are also exposed to pesticides, in addition to wildfire smoke and other seasonal air pollution. As these events become more common, understanding how these combined exposures affect respiratory health is increasingly important.”
Northern Thailand provides a unique setting to study these issues because seasonal crop burning creates predictable periods of elevated poor air quality levels, enabling researchers to examine the health effects of simultaneous exposure to air pollution and agricultural chemicals. Findings from the study are expected to inform occupational and environmental health policies in both Thailand and the United States.
Alexander, who is also head of the Division of Environmental Health, is an occupational and environmental epidemiologist whose research focuses on how environmental and workplace exposures affect human health. His work examines the environmental determinants of cancer and respiratory disease, the health of agricultural populations, injury prevention, and One Health approaches that recognize the connections among human, animal and environmental health.
The project is jointly funded by CGHSR and Chiang Mai University’s Research Institute for Health Sciences. Alexander leads the project with principal investigator Dr. Surat Hongsibsong from Chiang Mai University. University of Minnesota co-investigators include SPH Associate Professor Jesse Berman, and UMN Medical School Professor Christine Wendt
