Other Programmatic Elements Identified by the Committee - Agriculture Forestry and Fishing Research at NIOSH - page 139

program. That initiative has spawned other activity in several communities—the
farming, engineering, clinical, and occupational health research communities;
federal agencies; and state legislatures. These communities have addressed tractor-
related issues through the use of ROPS on tractors through public incentives;
improving lighting and marking to reduce injuries and deaths due to collisions
between tractors and motor vehicles on public roadways; enhancing the train-
ing of basic and advanced emergency medical technicians in clinically efficacious
methods of victim extraction and scene stabilization; exploration of emergency
machine-stopping mechanisms; and promulgation of designs for safe play areas
for children and adolescents near or in agricultural work zones.
PUBLIC POLICY AND REGULATORY ADVICE
At its formation, OSHA was designated to be the federal agency with primary
responsibility for regulation and enforcement of workplace safety. NIOSH was
created as an independent, scientific research organization to inform the public,
including governmental agencies, about occupational health and safety, and to play
an advisory role in recommending ways to reduce risk of injury or illness in the
workplace. However, NIOSH has regulatory authority for respirator certification in
agricultural environments for confined spaces and for dust and pesticide exposure
(42 CFR Part 84). Those are the only direct regulatory roles of NIOSH.
The Crucial Role of NIOSH
The committee finds that the AFF Program has played a central role in im-
proving public oversight of occupational safety for the AFF workforce at both the
federal and state levels. The committee also finds that the NIOSH Ag Centers, owing
to their specific regional focus, have made important contributions to informing
public policy discourse.
The AFF Program has provided both research findings and advice for a number
of substantial modifications of workplace safety regulation. It has also initiated
several important partnerships to develop improvements in occupational safety.
The two most notable partnerships have been with the Alaska commercial fishing
industry, where NIOSH engaged the industry workforce directly, and with the
Childhood Agricultural Safety Network, where a brilliant example of coalition
building was successfully undertaken and realized over a period of years.
The AFF Program has conducted 16 investigations as part of the agency-wide
Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) program. Those efforts were
not regulatory, but they identified deaths of young workers who were assigned tasks
prohibited by hazardous order regulations and incidents in which non-English