The Ideal Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing Research Program - Agriculture Forestry and Fishing Research at NIOSH - page 29

tion of resources would be devoted to extramural, competitive grant programs
that complement intramural research. Approaches may be specific to industries,
occupations, regions, and workforce demographics. Each of the three sectors—
agriculture, forestry, and fishing—would receive resources for health services re-
search in an equitable way that is proportionate to injuries and illnesses affecting
their worker populations. An effort would be made to nurture the careers of young
investigators engaged in occupational health services research. Training programs
for occupational safety and health students and practitioners pertinent to all as-
pects of occupational health relevant to AFF would be further developed, including
training for subspecialist physicians with expertise in areas such as pulmonary dis-
ease and allergies. The existing NIOSH training of rural nurses with occupational
expertise would be expanded. Barriers to completing this work include the historic
difficulties encountered when attempting to insert material on occupational and
environmental health relevant to all aspects of AFF into the curriculum for health
professions students. Existing programs would be reviewed for the relevance of
their content and approach. Monetary support of training programs would be
offered to fill a gap left by waning institutional support of such programs.
The ideal AFF Program would seek new ways to reach worker populations
with preventive services and information. The possibilities include partnerships
with workers' compensation insurance carriers to improve characterization of the
incidence of illness and injury in the AFF industries and to quantify and control
costs. The AFF Program could also work with WC carriers to develop and imple-
ment strategies for reaching workers with training materials to increase their
awareness of key health and safety topics and to offer incentives for reduction
in occupational illness and injury. Incentive-based programs carry the possible
danger that workers may be discouraged from reporting injuries or illnesses, but
new research is needed to more fully document the impact of such programs. To
implement such a program, WC insurance companies would need the cooperation
of employers that purchase their insurance, because insurance companies ordinar-
ily do not have direct access to workers unless a claim is filed. NIOSH could play
a key role in facilitating such relationships by preparing educational materials and
interpreting injury and illness data.
Knowledge Diffusion and Technology Transfer
For research and technological development to be effective, people at risk
of disease or injury would need to apply the information that results from such
research and technological development. Knowledge diffusion makes it possible
for new information to be shared beyond the narrow confines of researchers. AFF
workers can be difficult to reach because they do not work in well-defined settings