Review of Surveillance Research - Agriculture Forestry and Fishing Research at NIOSH - page 63

INTERMEDIATE OUTCOMES
The AFF Program has not yet made extensive use of surveillance to produce
intermediate outcomes. In the evidence package (NIOSH, 2006a), the program staff
list as intermediate outcomes related to hazard surveillance one NIOSH Hazard
Alert on farm machinery (1993), one state FACE investigation related to the use
of Micotil 300® (tilmicosin) in cattle (to prevent shipping fever) that resulted in a
farmer's death from self-injection, and the resulting workplace-solutions document
and additional warnings by Elanco to all Micotil purchasers (NIOSH, 2006a).
The most logical intermediate outcome would be the use of surveillance data
in developing and evaluating intervention programs. The fishing program in Alaska
was the only program that used surveillance data to develop and monitor inter-
ventions in which the intermediate outcomes of the use of surveillance data were
clearly evident (NIOSH, 2006a).
To a lesser degree, traumatic injury surveillance data related to tractors were
used to identify commonly used farm tractors without ROPS. This information
became the basis for providing low-cost designs to encourage farmers to retrofit
tractors.
END OUTCOMES
The AFF Program staff provided evidence of the following changes (NIOSH,
2006a):
• A reduction in acute pesticide poisoning from 13.1 to 8.9 cases per 100,000
as a result of surveillance and research activities.
• A reduction, in both absolute numbers and rates, in youth injuries.
• Reductions in logging accidents and helicopter crashes.
• Significant reductions in fishery accidents and deaths brought about as a
result of safety training and inspections.
Only the reductions in fishing accidents and deaths were linked with a spe-
cific intervention and the surveillance system (NIOSH, 2006a). The reduction in
pesticide poisonings may have been due to the reduced use of organophosphate
pesticides or due to decreased reporting resulting from increased healthcare costs;
thus the reduction in poisonings may not be directly related to the work of the
AFF Program.