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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3 Overall Program Assessment
3 Overall Program Assessment
Pages 46-68
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From page 46... ...
and discovering that agricultural safety and health represented nearly 99% of the program's resources, the committee decided instead to evaluate the AFF research program as a whole. The committee focused its evaluation on research in agricultural safety and health but also assessed safety and health efforts in forestry and fishing to the extent that information was provided by NIOSH.
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From page 47... ...
. The committee evaluated each major goal and compared programmatic components of the existing program with those of the ideal AFF Program described in Chapter 2.
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From page 48... ...
Evaluation of Strategic Goals and Objectives The AFF Program's stated goals are general and appear appropriately aligned with congressional mandate, but they do not include specific measurable objectives that would guide the subprograms and allow for assessment of progress. Further more, it does not appear that strategic goals have been developed specifically for each sector, that is, agriculture, forestry, and fishing.
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From page 49... ...
. Production Inputs: Intramural and extramural funding, staffing, management structure, and physical facilities.
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From page 50... ...
However, it remains to be seen whether the complex nature of this program portfolio matrix will facilitate or hinder research planning, implementation, communication, and assessment. It was noted that intervention effectiveness research no longer has specific emphasis in NORA, although it would probably fall in the AFF sector or appropriate cross-sector programs or coordinated emphasis areas, such as personal protective technology or engineering controls.
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From page 51... ...
orchestrated by the High Plains Intermountain Center for Agricultural Health and Safety (HICAHS)
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From page 52... ...
Production Inputs Production inputs include budget, staff, facilities, management structure, ex tramural entities, and partners. Over the period 1997-2006, the annual agriculture budget averaged about $24 million (a total of $237,750,550 for 1997-2006)
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From page 53... ...
That metric may not be appropriate for comparing intramural staffing for research programs of such widely different scope and size, but the result suggests that NIOSH staffing levels are at least as high as those of other organizations when standardized according to funding levels. Despite the fact that the total number of FTEs associated with the AFF Program seems to be adequate, the management structure and its influence on the effective use of production inputs would also need to be considered.
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From page 54... ...
Intramural and Extramural Research Faced with a relatively small annual budget and what was characterized by Congress as a national crisis concerning the health of farmers and other agricul tural workers, NIOSH made two pivotal and far-reaching decisions. The first was to conduct intramural research in fields of science that appeared less well developed.
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From page 55... ...
on agricultural safety and health." The centers were established as cooperative agreements that are geo graphically distributed to be responsive to agricultural health and safety issues peculiar to different regions of the country. At the time of this report, 10 centers were listed on the NIOSH Web site.
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From page 56... ...
Southeast Center for Agricultural Health and Injury Prevention, Lexington, Kentucky The mission of the Southeast Center for Agricultural Health and Injury Prevention is to develop and sustain an innovative program of research, education, and health advocacy to prevent work-related illness and injury and to improve the safety and health of agricultural workers and their families in the southeastern United States. The center serves stakehold ers in Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, West Virginia, and Virginia.
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From page 57... ...
These states and territories face many common agromedicine issues related to climate, crops, strong timber and fishing industries, a large migrant worker population, and endemic rural poverty. Southwest Center for Agricultural Health, Injury Prevention, and Education, Tyler, Texas The mission of the Southwest Center for Agricultural Health, Injury Prevention, and Educa tion is to foster, disseminate, and evaluate activities related to health, injury prevention, and education among agricultural interest groups to promote health and safety practices among agricultural workers and their families in New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana.
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From page 58... ...
The Iowa Center for Agricultural Safety and Health has sponsored regional and national symposia structured around specific AFF issues, such as the national agricultural research agenda (1992 Surgeon General's Conference on Agri cultural Health and Safety) , design of occupational and environmental medical TABLE 3-1 Conferences, Symposia, and Working Meetings to Engage Stakeholders Conference Year CHILDHOOD AGRICULTURAL INJURY Surgeon General's Conference on Agricultural Safety and Health 1991 Childhood Agricultural Injury Prevention Symposium 1992 Child and Adolescent Rural Injury Control 1995 4th International Symposium: Rural Health and Safety in a Changing World 1998 Agricultural Safety and Health in a New Century 2000 National Occupational Injury Research Symposium 2000 Federal Interagency Working Group on Preventing Childhood Agricultural Injuries 2001 National Institute for Farm Safety -- Annual Meeting 2001 2001 Summit on Childhood Agricultural Injury Prevention 2001 National Injury Prevention and Control Conference 2005 MINORITY POPULATIONS Expert Panel on Hired Farmworker Occupational Health and Safety 1995 LOGGING Three workshops devoted to helicopter logging standards in Alaska 1993-1997 FISHERMEN Fishing Industry Safety and Health (FISH)
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From page 59... ...
Additionally, the Southeast Center for Agricultural Health and Injury Prevention led the effort from 2005-2007 to assess farmer and rancher attitudes towards retrofitting older agricultural tractors as a part of the National Agricultural Tractor Safety Initiative. The Western Center for Agricultural Safety and Health assembled a multi-disciplinary team from the United States and Canada in 2006 to assess the ergonomic and anthropometric parameters of the North American Guidelines for Children's Agricultural Tasks (NAGCAT)
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From page 60... ...
It is difficult to assess the adequacy of production inputs given the lack of detail regarding the distribution of Ag Center funding and how it is directed toward program goals. The management structure of NIOSH seems to limit the role of AFF Program personnel in directing resources, managing projects, and evaluating progress toward measurable objectives.
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From page 61... ...
These include the development, implementation, and evaluation of education projects; providing consultation or training to researchers, safety and health professionals, and agricultural extension agents; development, implementation, and evaluation of model programs for prevention of illness and injury; and development of linkages and communication with other government and non-government bodies involved in agricultural health and safety with emphasis on communication with other agricultural safety and health programs. Those requirements ensure that Ag Centers engage in some minimal amount of transfer activity.
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From page 62... ...
Peer-Review Process The peer-review process for intramural and extramural research programs is a strength of the AFF Program. Ag Center activities are supported under an RFA pro cess specifically requiring centers to include prevention or intervention programs that address agricultural safety and health.
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From page 63... ...
• Third NIOSH Agricultural Health and Safety Conference (1996)
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From page 64... ...
• ASH-NET Agricultural Safety and Health Conference (2001) • Summit on Childhood Agricultural Injury Prevention (2001)
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From page 65... ...
Federal policies in which AFF Program research informed decisionmaking: • The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) used a 1976 NIOSH document for a proposed logging standard as a basis of the 1994 OSHA logging standard (29 CFR 1910.266)
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From page 66... ...
NIOSH is expected to make recommendations to OSHA, but OSHA needs to consider the views of other interested parties that may have concerns that differ from those of NIOSH. Where statutory and labor exemptions apply, NIOSH faces federal regulatory constraints that make it difficult to affect worker safety and health.
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From page 67... ...
As an example of favorable but unpredictable external factors, NIOSH noted the activities of several stakeholder organiza tions. The National Safety Council adopted a "Farm Safety and Health Week" and established the National Education Center for Agricultural Safety in Iowa.
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From page 68... ...
Several federal agencies have regu latory responsibilities for portions of AFF operations: EPA regulates pesticide applicators, DOL enforces the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act, USCG enforces standards under the Commercial Fishing Vessel Safety Act, and the Department of Home land Security, the Federal Aviation Administration, and EPA oversee aerial applications of pesticides and fertilizers.
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