Overall Program Assessment - Agriculture Forestry and Fishing Research at NIOSH - page 41

BOX 3-3
NIOSH Centers for Agricultural Disease and Injury Research,
Education, and Prevention (Ag Centers)
The Ag Centers were established as part of the Centers for Disease Control and Preven-
tion (CDC) NIOSH Agricultural Health and Safety Initiative in 1990. The enabling legislation
(P.L. 101-517) called for the Ag Centers to “develop model programs for the prevention of
illness among agricultural workers and their families . . . and [to] educat[e] on agricultural
safety and health.” The centers were established as cooperative agreements that are geo-
graphically distributed to be responsive to agricultural health and safety issues peculiar to
different regions of the country. At the time of this report, 10 centers were listed on the
NIOSH Web site. The Ag Centers represent well over half the AFF Program investment in
extramural research and constitute one of the most important contributions to the AFF
Program. The centers are described briefly below.
Great Lakes Center for Agricultural Safety and Health, Columbus, Ohio
The goal of the Great Lakes Center for Agricultural Safety and Health (GLCASH) is to promote
agricultural safety and health for farm, forestry, and fishery employers, workers, families,
and their communities in the Great Lakes region. GLCASH serves Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky,
Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and West Virginia. Other Ag Centers
overlap in some of those states; it is expected that activities in these states will be com-
municated and coordinated among centers. The states in the GLCASH working circle share
many attributes, such as crops, farming practices, farm sizes, migrant streams, poverty in
the Appalachian areas, and strong commercial fishing and timber industries.
Great Plains Center for Agricultural Health, Iowa City, Iowa
Serving Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska, the Great Plains Center for Agricultural Health
is dedicated to one central goal: finding ways to protect and promote the health and safety
of farmers, farm workers, their families, and their neighbors.
High Plains Intermountain Center for Agricultural
Health and Safety, Fort Collins, Colorado
The High Plains Intermountain Center for Agricultural Health and Safety (HICAHS) is dedi-
cated to the improvement of the occupational health, safety, and well-being of the residents
of Colorado, the High Plains, and the Rocky Mountain region. HICAHS has served the
agricultural population of Public Health Service Region VIII (Colorado, Utah, Wyoming,
Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota) for more than 10 years. The overarching goals
of HICAHS are to reduce agricultural injury and illness through focused research, education,
and intervention.
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