Recommendations for Program Improvement - Agriculture Forestry and Fishing Research at NIOSH - page 194

evidence of field time in scientific articles, clinical notes, insertions in Morbidity
and Mortality Weekly Report, NIOSH Alerts , and other documents.
7.b: The AFF Program should increase the use of interdisciplinary teams
to address the environmental, social, cultural, and psychological complexities
of issues that face AFF workers. Industrial processes of agriculture, forestry, and
fisheries are undertaken in environmental settings that often contribute to the high
risk associated with the occupations involved, including weather conditions, steep
slopes, and high seas that affect the machinery and equipment involved. In agricul-
ture, the immediate proximity of the worksite to residences means that spouses and
children are potentially affected—for example, by pesticide drift contamination,
children's injuries that take place during play, and respiratory, zoonotic, and other
diseases—even when family members are not directly involved in farming activi-
ties. Similarly, proposed solutions to AFF health and safety problems—whether
engineering, regulatory, or educational solutions or the use of personal protective
equipment—often require an understanding of the social, cultural, political, and
psychological context of the causes and consequences of injuries or illnesses.
The interdisciplinary teams should include sociologists, psychologists, anthro-
pologists, political scientists, economists, and human factors specialists to help
researchers understand the social processes that contribute to injury and illness,
the social processes that contribute to the successful transfer of solutions, and the
analysis and evaluation of what works in AFF worksites. Some examples are the
impact of private-sector organizational solutions, such as the use of insurance
companies for farm compliance with best practices, and social marketing strategies
to overcome resistance to change. The application of such innovative solutions in
other AFF contexts has the potential to increase the impact beyond the examples
cited. Furthermore, a successful approach would include qualitative research train-
ing experts on review panels to evaluate this type of research.
Enhance Awareness of National Policy
Recommendation 8: The AFF Program staff should develop greater aware-
ness of national policy activities because they can have a substantial impact
on AFF worker populations and risk factors.
National policy decisions affect how farming, logging, and fishing can be con-
ducted; consequently, they affect conditions in which AFF workers will be at risk
of occupational injury or disease. The policies include changes in the allowed catch
from fisheries and limits on logging in the nation's vast national forests that result
from decisions regarding endangered habitats. NIOSH personnel that are well-
informed of current national policies that affect agriculture, forestry, and fishing