Program Scoring and Rationale - Agriculture Forestry and Fishing Research at NIOSH - page 155

to reach worker populations in the AFF sectors. Many examples of such models
have been used by the Ag Centers and are described in Chapter 8. As previously
mentioned, some projects have been successful in outreach because they first and
foremost successfully engaged stakeholders and target populations and understood
how to translate research results into workplace practices.
The AFF Program has been ill equipped, even among university-based and
clinical researchers, to address cultural and language barriers. Bench scientists can-
not be expected to become instant experts in unfamiliar cultures, foreign languages,
and rural lifestyles and practices. Several first-rate scientists have courageously and
frankly admitted their lack of expertise and experience in community outreach
and have asked for assistance in public conferences that involved the AFF Program
(Frank et al., 2004).
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS ABOUT IMPACT
The committee concluded that AFF Program activities or outputs are likely to
produce improvements in worker health and safety, and gave the AFF Program an
impact score of 3. That score was merited by the fact that the program has made
some contributions to worker safety and health, as seen in the success of projects
that have affected children, commercial fishermen, and tractor operators. But
the committee had a difficult time establishing a clear record of positive impacts
because the AFF Program itself has not given much priority to documenting the
impact of its efforts. In some instances, the committee was aware of impacts that
could be attributed to the AFF Program for which the program itself did not take
credit. In other cases, however, it is clear that the contributions of the program
have not been accepted by stakeholders nor has the research program engaged
sufficiently in transfer activities. The committee concluded that the impact of the
AFF Program's research has been hampered by a lack of leadership, stakeholder
buy-in, and effective dissemination of knowledge and practices. The following
section elaborates on these findings.
The committee finds that the NIOSH AFF Program has made important contribu-
tions that are likely to produce improvements in worker safety and health. The outputs
of the AFF Program include a wealth of information that is still considered current
and important by the scientific community. However, the information has not
been organized in a manner that is understandable by or helpful to others and has
not been accessible to its own researchers; the AFF Program holds great potential
for impacting workers if it is able to organize information in an accessible, under-
standable, and helpful format. Research has informed public policy and regulatory
initiatives at the federal level and in several states. It is vital that independent,
scientifically based research continue to inform policy and regulatory discourse.