Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing Research at NIOSH Reviews of Research Programs of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (2008) / Chapter Skim
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11 New and Emerging Research in Agricultural, Forestry, and Fishing Safety and Health
11 New and Emerging Research in Agricultural, Forestry, and Fishing Safety and Health
Pages 175-194
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From page 175... ...
In keeping with the guidance of the Framework Document, this chapter provides the committee's suggestions based on expertise of individual members rather than as a product of a formal process to explore and synthesize recommendations that could be developed through a comprehensive review of the field. IDENTIFICATION OF NEW AND EMERGING RESEARCH BY THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH Process for Identifying New and Emerging Research The AFF Program identifies new and emerging research through planning inputs consisting of surveillance data, stakeholder needs, partner aims, information exchanged in symposia and conferences, and program evaluations.
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From page 176... ...
. As a result of the aforementioned methods used to identify new and emerging research, the AFF Program has listed the following new technologies and potential emerging issues as potentially relevant for new research: • Automatic steering, autopilot, and computer-operated equipment • Biological manufacturing • Biosensors • Biotechnology • Changing farmer demographics • DNA sensing chips and nanolasers • Exposure to genetically modified organisms • Exposure to high-pressure hydraulic systems • Fatigue • High-speed equipment • Irradiation of food
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From page 177... ...
The fishing projects in Alaska and the farm-resident child-injury initiatives, for example, have consistently carried out sound research practices to affect fishermen and children, respectively, and have been able to identify new and emerging issues for these populations. Key factors in their success include the continuity of funding and staff.
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From page 178... ...
Regardless of how the list was assembled, the commit tee concurs that such issues as automated equipment, value-added processing on farms, changing farmer demographics, and zoonoses are emerging research issues and technologies that would benefit from NIOSH investigation. NEW RESEARCH IDENTIFIED BY THE COMMITTEE In evaluating the AFF Program's research, the committee identified several kinds of research missing in health effects, health services, intervention, and regu latory policies.
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From page 179... ...
AFF safety and health professionals need appropriate translation of the findings because they deal directly with AFF workers. Such discovery leads to specifically targeted therapies and intervention techniques for disease prevention and control -- the very reason for conducting health services research and training.
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From page 180... ...
It has taken a unified approach with the National Agricultural Tractor Safety Initiative, albeit a decade or so late, and needs to take a similar approach to intervention research in general. Although there are regional differences among the activities undertaken by AFF workers, the many
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From page 181... ...
The North American Guidelines for Children's Agricultural Tasks seem to be a good model for this kind of systematic development and rollout of an intervention, but the issues and most effective approaches may differ from children and adult AFF workers. Regulatory Policies Impact of Ending Statutory and Labor Exemptions for Agriculture New research could be conducted on the safety impact of ending the longstanding statutory exemptions for agriculture under the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Occupational Safety and Health Act.
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From page 182... ...
The committee recommends that the AFF Program continue research on how ending the "family farm exemption" would affect the labor market and other family farm workers. A related question is how raising the age restriction from 16 to 18 years for hazardous agricultural work would affect safety and health.
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From page 183... ...
High-Priority Research The committee identified several issues and research categories as having highpriority: changes in the demographic characteristics of the workforce, changes in the fishing industry, emerging forestry issues, blurring boundaries for food harvesting and food processing, food safety and food security, and the transformation and industrialization of agriculture. The committee hopes that the AFF Program will consider those crucial issues in the immediate future as it moves its research agenda forward.
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From page 184... ...
Changes in the Fishing Industry After years of effort on the part of NIOSH's Alaska Field Station, USCG, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Alaska Marine Safety Educa tion Association (AMSEA) , the North Pacific Fishing Vessel Owners' Association (NPFVOA)
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From page 185... ...
The U.S. forestry industry is undergoing substantial change due to mechanization, changing worksite labor organization, and increased use of contract labor for specified tasks.
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From page 186... ...
Additional surveillance and research activities may be required to fully characterize the magnitude and nature of these new hazards, and to develop ap propriate intervention strategies. Food Safety and Food Security Hazardous food agents or contaminants can cause illness among people di rectly involved in food production.
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From page 187... ...
The committee encourages NIOSH to begin such analyses without delay and recommends that NIOSH provide encouragement and targeted funding for Ag Centers that may be in the best position to mount such efforts with dispatch. Medium-Priority Research Medium-priority issues and research subjects that are potentially critical in the near future were identified: the development of biofuels and their impact on workers and the environment, conditions of farm labor housing and its impact on public health, the rising demand for specialty agriculture, the integration of human and animal health, and the need to review equipment safety issues.
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From page 188... ...
Farm-Labor Housing The central importance of housing conditions for health status has been well understood in the public health community for more than a century. The first effort to address the living conditions specifically of hired farm laborers was California's 1915 Labor Camp Act, a response to horrific labor camp conditions that led to the Wheatland Hop Riot of 1913.
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From page 189... ...
Integration of Human and Animal Health Emerging and re-emerging pathogens include parasites and zoonotic agents that in recent decades have been associated with changes in the demographics of the workforce, in herd health practices, and in the practice of medicine and veterinary medicine in connection with the use of the same antimicrobial agents in humans and animals or the use in animals of antimicrobial agents that could be harmful to humans. For example, the accidental injection of Micotil (tilmicosin)
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From page 190... ...
Low-Priority Research The committee identified four wide-reaching issues and research subjects that are candidates for long-term study: the impact of nutrient enrichment of food and genetically modified organisms (GMOs) on worker safety and health, transporta
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From page 191... ...
From 1996 to 2005, the total surface area of land cultivated with GMOs increased from 4.2 million acres to 222 million acres, of which 55 percent was in the United States. Controversies surrounding genetically modified foods focus on consumer health and safety but not the health and safety of the farm workers.
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From page 192... ...
Regulations require the safe transport of migrant and seasonal farm workers, but it is not clear that they are being applied or what barriers impede the application of regulations that would improve safe transport. Global Warming Human-induced climate change, its potential impacts upon AFF working populations, and options for potentially effective interventions to preserve health status has received increasingly more attention in the last few years (Kilbourne, 1992; IPCC, 2007)
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From page 193... ...
Evaluation of the few existing AFF agreements could inform future directions of workplace safety programs. At the same time, worker advocates caution that workers in non-union settings may feel too vulnerable to make safety recommendations, a comment that needs to also inform research on this topic.
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From page 194... ...
However, hired agricultural workers, as previously described, are exempt from NLRA jurisdiction, so this would be of concern only to forestry and fishing firms. Moreover, the opinion of a knowledgeable labor attorney, provided on an informal basis and not constituting either legal advice or a legal opinion, indicates that such an election would not normally be considered an unfair labor practice under the NLRA (Joel Levinson, personal communication, May 11, 2007)
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