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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12 Recommendations for Program Improvement
12 Recommendations for Program Improvement
Pages 195-210
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From page 195... ...
, the Committee to Review the NIOSH Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing Research Program identified several potential opportunities to improve the relevance of the program's work and strengthen its impact on reducing injuries and illness in the AFF sectors. This chapter presents the committee's recommendations for program improvement.
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From page 196... ...
1.a: The AFF Program lacks a concerted effort and should focus its admin istrative efforts on improving program leadership, administrative oversight, and program documentation. Improve Program Leadership NIOSH is capable of deploying leadership across the AFF sectors.
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From page 197... ...
Improve Program Documentation NIOSH should move expeditiously to create a plan for open sharing of scientific information and best practices from past, present, and future intramural and extramural projects. To achieve that goal, the existing electronic centralized archival repository should be enhanced and be made more user-friendly.
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From page 198... ...
To follow this recommendation, NIOSH should create a national coordinat ing council that includes key stakeholders and the directors of the Ag Centers. The council would oversee strategic research goals (for example, in health effects, intervention, and health services research)
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From page 199... ...
Current surveillance systems that cover occupational health, hazard, and injury are not comprehensive in that they do not cover the AFF workforce. The surveillance activities described in the NIOSH AFF evidence package reflect a piecemeal approach to surveillance and fail to address such critical issues as the population at risk and the incorporation of disease surveillance that includes more than respiratory disease, hazard surveillance that includes exposures other than to pesticides, and injury surveillance that includes a national focus on fatal and nonfatal injuries in all AFF workers.
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From page 200... ...
; an increase in reliance on contract labor and farm-management firms; and marked shifts in demographics among hired and con tract workers, such as Africans in the fishing industry in Alaska, Mayan-speaking Guatemaltecos in New York state dairies, and indigenous immigrants throughout the nation. The committee strongly urges NIOSH to update and broaden its under standing of hired workers to include -- without regard to immigration status or ethnicity -- all hired AFF laborers, such as confined livestock, fishing vessel, fish farm, and forestry fire abatement workers.
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From page 201... ...
A revised definition should reflect persons at risk for occupational injuries and illnesses in AFF enterprises and those visiting AFF worksites (see Chapter 2 and Appendix E)
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From page 202... ...
The role of cultural context -- for example, in child labor policy on farms -- needs to be incorporated into knowledge diffusion programs. That is also relevant for adult AFF workers.
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From page 203... ...
This is an especially difficult problem in production agriculture in light of the diversity in the populations at risk. Professionals in disciplines such as cultural anthropology and rhetoric would be consulted to assist AFF Program scientists and national program staff to develop outreach materials; it is not realistic to expect working populations to follow recent developments through websites and printed reports.
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From page 204... ...
6.b: The AFF Program should establish a coordinating council that would serve as a public advisory committee and would assume lead responsibility for informing public discourse on occupational safety and health issues. As men tioned in recommendation 2, this group would be critical in advising and coordi nating the AFF Program's efforts.
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From page 205... ...
Some Ag Centers have successfully worked with cooperative extension services, state occupational safety and health agencies, state environmental protection agencies, and state departments of agriculture and should continue to engage in these valuable partnerships.
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From page 206... ...
because it could resolve questions about glioma etiology; explore the role of exposure to selected airborne toxins, such as cattle urine and metabolites of long-term manure storage; identify potential contributions to hu man disease of volatile organic chemicals, such as benzene and toluene, that are ubiquitous in agricultural, forestry, and fishing environments; identify other non farm employment exposures as potential occupational confounders; and develop and promulgate guidelines for organizing cancer prevention and control projects in AFF populations. Even though the program has invested little in reproductive health research, NIOSH should also be applauded for its involvement with the CDC state birth defects registries, which make it possible to identify testable hypotheses and explore potential relationships between AFF occupational exposures and detectable birth defects.
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From page 207... ...
Kellogg Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the California Endowment already have program experience and relevance in the broad arena of agricultural and extractive industry policy, and they may be in a position to offer advice and exploratory evidence. The Farm Foundation recently sponsored an ad hoc committee of stakeholders to provide a forum for industry, academe, and advocacy groups to explore common themes in agricultural safety and health.
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From page 208... ...
Furthermore, a successful approach would include qualitative research train ing experts on review panels to evaluate this type of research. Enhance Awareness of National Policy Recommendation 8: The AFF Program staff should develop greater aware ness of national policy activities because they can have a substantial impact on AFF worker populations and risk factors.
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From page 209... ...
Immigrants make up a large fraction of hired AFF workers. The Department of Homeland Security recently promulgated new regulations requiring employers to dismiss employees who are unable to prove their legal status; such dismissals would be based on "no-match" findings of name and Social Security number in federal records.
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From page 210... ...
SUMMARY The AFF Program plays a positive and crucial role in providing informa tion and tools to promote a safer and healthier work environment in agriculture, forestry, and fishing. The committee hopes that its recommendations will help refocus and redirect program efforts, thereby enhancing the program's impact on the safety and health of all populations at occupational risk in agriculture, forestry, and fishing.
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