Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing Program
What are our priorities?
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing Program (AgFF) works with partners in industry, labor, trade associations, professional organizations, and academia. The program currently focuses on these areas:
- Conducting research to understand and decrease exposure to hazards that cause disease, and injury in the industry.
- Developing and implementing educational, outreach, and prevention programs to protect workers.
- Developing and evaluating control technologies to protect workers.
What do we do?
- Provide leadership and coordination for intra and extramural efforts nationwide, including 11 Centers for Agricultural Safety and Health, investigator-initiated research efforts, NIOSH’s Commercial Fishing and Pesticides programs, and other NIOSH projects.
- Administer Commercial Fishing Safety Research and Training Grants in partnership with the US Coast Guard to support safety research, and provide critical training for this high-risk occupation.
- Raise awareness of evidence-based recommendations to prevent injuries and illnesses.
- Advance research-to-practice (r2p) through active partnerships with stakeholders.
- Sponsor regional, national, and international conferences and conference sessions to promote further research, identify research needs, and share findings.
- Coordinate a multi-state pesticide poisoning case-based surveillance system through the Sentinel Event Notification System for Occupational Risk (SENSOR) Pesticide Program.
What have we accomplished?
- NIOSH research was featured in two special issues of the Journal of Agromedicine, One highlighted forestry & loggingexternal icon and the other focused on commercial fishing, seafood processing, and aquacultureexternal icon topics that were presented at the International Fishing Industry Safety and Health Conference (IFISH 5)external icon.
- Developed mobile application to collect data from logging machine operators to study musculoskeletal symptoms, working tasks, work hours, and environmental conditions.
- Convened the 2019 State of the Science meeting on Stress & Resilience Among Agricultural Workers and Vulnerable Rural Communities. There were 57 experts from a variety of fields including psychology, nursing, social work, and public health.
- Published manualexternal icon detailing best practices for workplace safety on dairy farms.
- Developed ‘Feedyard 15’, worker safety training modules that cover 15 of the most hazardous jobs on a feeding operation. A train-the-trainer workshop occurred in 2019 and monthly training is ongoing in four states using these modules.
- Developed and shared eight interactive online training modules as a part of the Agricultural Safety and Health Core Courseexternal icon.
- Published COVID-19 guidance in a national collaboration across federal agencies, NIOSH Agricultural Centers, and partners.
What’s next?
- Publish literature review focusing on fatigue prevention across the AgFF sector.
- Develop COVID-19-video series that offers expert recommendations for AgFF industries on key occupational health and safety issues.
- Develop web pages and videos for Agricultural Centers’ YouTube channel to promote best practices in occupational safety and health.
- Publish science blog on topic related to improving safety and health in the industry.
Mention of any company or product does not constitute endorsement by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
At-A-Glance
The Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing Program provides scientific leadership to prevent work-related injuries and illnesses among the nation’s agricultural, forestry, and fishing workers. This snapshot shows recent accomplishments and upcoming work.
US States and Territories Served by NIOSH Centers for Agricultural Safety and Health
Occupational Fatality Rate for the Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing Sector and All US Workers, 2008-2018
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, 2008-2018
To learn more, visit
https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/agforfish/
December 2020
Page last reviewed: November 18, 2020
Content source: National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health