Recommendations for Program Improvement - Agriculture Forestry and Fishing Research at NIOSH - page 192

NIOSH should be commended for its collaboration with the National Cancer
Institute, NIEHS, and EPA on the Agricultural Health Study, a prospective study
of 90,000 people that has the potential to elucidate relationships between farm
exposures and various chronic and other health outcomes. The committee recom-
mends that NIOSH increase involvement in this joint initiative relative to cancer
(and other diseases) because it could resolve questions about glioma etiology;
explore the role of exposure to selected airborne toxins, such as cattle urine and
metabolites of long-term manure storage; identify potential contributions to hu-
man disease of volatile organic chemicals, such as benzene and toluene, that are
ubiquitous in agricultural, forestry, and fishing environments; identify other non-
farm employment exposures as potential occupational confounders; and develop
and promulgate guidelines for organizing cancer prevention and control projects
in AFF populations.
Even though the program has invested little in reproductive health research,
NIOSH should also be applauded for its involvement with the CDC state birth
defects registries, which make it possible to identify testable hypotheses and explore
potential relationships between AFF occupational exposures and detectable birth
defects. Other federal initiatives warranting NIOSH attention include the Genes,
Environment, and Health Initiative ( http://genesandenvironment.nih.gov ) spon-
sored by NIH, which will develop new tools for measuring environmental exposures
that affect health, and the National Children's Study ( http://nationalchildrensstudy.
gov ) sponsored by NIH, CDC, EPA, and the Department of Education, which will
explore the effects of occupational exposures on children and other matters.
6.d: The AFF Program should establish public-private partnerships to work
more closely with equipment, facility, and pesticide manufacturers in design and
development processes. Sound engineering methods and products should always
be preferred for intervention so that the risk of hazard exposure can be minimized
or eliminated and the human element of “good work practices” does not have to be
depended on. Stakeholders should be included at all levels of intervention research,
from the manufacturer to the user of AFF equipment, facilities, and pesticides.
A participatory approach needs to be cultivated with equipment manufacturers,
facility designers, and pesticide manufacturers. A German automobile manufac-
turer once said in a television commercial about safety that “some things are too
important not to share,” referring to the patented crumple zone body design that
it shared with other car makers and which are now standard in automobiles. The
goal of bringing NIOSH into the equation of occupational safety and health is to
establish the spirit of sharing by prevention through design.
NIOSH should be encouraged to partner with non-profit organizations, such
as the National Safety Council, and to leverage support from one or more private