Introduction - Agriculture Forestry and Fishing Research at NIOSH - page 15

dressed in expert testimony during the formative stages of the AFF initiative. And
intentional injuries, largely suicides, were not addressed by the legislation.
An innovative feature of P.L. 101-517 was the call to establish extramural cen-
ters. The legislation specifically charged NIOSH with responsibility to select and
fund agricultural occupational safety and health centers at select universities. Spe-
cific language stated: “these centers would: (1) develop model programs for the pre-
vention of illness among agricultural workers and their families; (2) develop model
educational programs on agricultural safety and health for workers in agriculture;
(3) evaluate agricultural injury and disease prevention programs implemented by
agricultural extension programs, state health departments, federal agencies, and
others; (4) conduct applied research and evaluations of engineering and ergonomic
control technology and procedures developed by Federal and private agents; and
(5) provide consultation to researchers, safety and health professionals, agriculture
extension programs, and others” (NIOSH, 2000c).
As surveillance results became available, the burden of injury borne by children
and adolescents on farms and ranches was recognized (Gerberich et al., 1991).
However, sentinel calls for attention to these vulnerable workers had been issued
for decades, even when surveillance data were lacking. For at least 3 decades, chil-
dren and youth had been the target of educational interventions (see, for example,
National Safety Council, 1953; Farm Safety Review, 1954; or National 4-H Club
News, 1958), even though the efficacy of such approaches was open to question.
By 1958, the NSC had created the Youth Safety Activities Committee, whose role
was to provide educational programming guidance and information exchange to
individuals and agencies that wished to embark on youth safety programming.
Those educational interventions for children in agriculture had high priority be-
cause people under 16 years old were excluded from OSHA regulations, given the
exemption of labor for family farms.
The first national consensus conference relative to the unintentional injury
burden in youth occurred in 1992 (Lee and Gunderson, 1992); other formative
activities, including development of a National Action Plan for Childhood Agri-
cultural Injury Prevention, followed and resulted in the design of a second national
initiative that targeted vulnerable child and adolescent populations (NCCAIP,
1996). Congress adopted the plan in 1996 and passed legislation in the same year
(P.L. 104-208), with the conference report (H. Rept. 104-863) specifically appro-
priating for

• Establishment of a national Children's Center for Rural and Agricultural
Health and Safety to plan and coordinate a national response to the epidemic of
injury among children and adolescents exposed to agricultural worksite risk.
•

Surveillance exploring the etiology of child and adolescent agricultural

injury.