Recommendations for Program Improvement - Agriculture Forestry and Fishing Research at NIOSH - page 187

2. Convene a panel of surveillance experts from state health departments,
FACE program experts, universities, the State and Territorial Injury Prevention
Directors Association, workers' compensation insurance experts, labor organiza-
tions representing all AFF sectors including temporary workers, and the Coun-
cil of State and Territorial Epidemiologists to develop new approaches to AFF
surveillance.
3. Implement pilot surveillance systems based on the new approaches pro-
posed by the convened experts.
4. Develop an evaluation plan to assess the quality of the pilot surveillance

systems.

Identify and Track AFF Populations at Risk

Recommendation 4: The NIOSH AFF Program should clearly identify and
track its target populations.

Because of the scope and diversity of workplace activities in AFF, it is impos-
sible to conduct effective research covering this broad range of hazards and risks.
Therefore, the committee underscores the necessity of the initial needs assessment
stage of at-risk population exposure rates and hazardous work conditions.
4.a: A clear definition of worker populations “at risk” is needed. It is not
apparent from materials and responses provided to the committee how the AFF
Program has defined those populations. The term special populations at risk is not
suitable for identifying a person or group of people working in AFF activities.
A revised definition should reflect persons at risk for occupational injuries and
illnesses in AFF enterprises and those visiting AFF worksites (see Chapter 2 and
Appendix E).
NIOSH's use of child labor as a way of defining exposure of children is inad-
equate because the current definition used in NIOSH-supported programs includes
myriad activities and situations that do not accurately represent “labor”. The pri-
mary focus of NIOSH research is attention to hazards faced by workers that are di-
rectly associated with the tasks they perform. Agricultural work is considered (with
exemptions) hazardous to children under 18 years old by the International Labour
Organization and DOL. Therefore, the AFF Program should primarily focus on
risks faced by children under age 18, whether they are unpaid family workers or
hired workers. Visiting a farm or playing in a safe area at a farm does not constitute
labor, although it entails risk given that a farm is a work environment. In addition,
various age groups, including persons over age 18, have been targeted for different
studies, and this further complicates NIOSH's apparent definition of child labor .
The definitions of minority populations—which include children, the Navajo,
and Hispanics and Latinos—are combined with occupation type, and this compli-