Review of Intervention Research - Agriculture Forestry and Fishing Research at NIOSH - page 102

Logging Fatalities
The AFF Program has adopted a multipronged approach to control injuries
in logging, consisting of support for development of an Occupational Safety and
Health Administration (OSHA) standard for the logging industry, coordination
of an Alaskan intervention program to address injuries associated with helicopter
operations, conduct of investigations of selected logging fatalities with the Fatality
Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) program, and assessment of mechani-
cal logging methods as a means of reducing injuries.
Relevance to Most Frequent Outcomes
The 2004 Worker Health Chartbook indicates that the number of nonfatal ag-
ricultural injuries has been increasing; they totaled 104,400 in 2001. On the basis
of data gathered from 1993 to 1995, the leading sources of injury were machinery
and livestock, with roughly equal numbers attributed to each (about 99,000). The
largest number of injuries occurred in cattle, hog, or sheep operations, followed
by cash-crop and dairy farms. The Chartbook also presents nonfatal injury data
from the 11 NIOSH surveillance and research areas. Results show that relative to
other industries, the AFF sector had relatively high rates in the surveillance cat-
egories of fatal injuries, nonfatal injuries (particularly amputations, back injuries,
bruises and contusions, cuts and lacerations, fractures, and strains, sprains, and
tears), poisoning (with pesticides), respiratory disease (especially hypersensitivity
pneumonitis), and dermatitis. It is noted that surveillance data on many of these
categories are quite sparse.
The AFF Program has supported numerous intervention research activities
directed toward the most common outcomes. The projects reflect diverse targeted
outcomes that in general are relevant to the most common outcomes identified in
the Worker Health Chartbook or through surveillance activities conducted as part
of other Ag Center activities.
Relevance to Needs of Special Populations
Gender is often included in examinations of risk factors for injury and illness,
but no evidence was found to suggest that it was being specifically considered
in the intervention research projects examined. Vulnerable working populations
were often the focus of AFF Program intervention projects, including the exten-
sive emphasis on childhood agricultural injury prevention, migrant and minority
populations, loggers, and fishermen.