Key points
- The Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing (AgFF) Program provides scientific leadership to prevent work-related injuries and illnesses among agricultural, forestry, and fishing workers.
- The Program works with partners to conduct research, develop controls and technologies, and produce resources for workers and employers.
Overview
To Learn More
The Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing (AgFF) Program provides leadership and coordination between intra- and extramural efforts nationwide to prevent work-related injuries and illnesses among the nation’s agricultural, forestry, and fishing workers.
The NIOSH-funded Centers for Agricultural Safety and Health and NIOSH Center for Maritime Safety and Health Studies conduct much of this research, as well as regional capacity-building, outreach, and research-to-practice activities.
The Program also collaborates with partners in industry, labor, trade associations, professional and service organizations, and academia to advance research and promote best practices.
Program priorities
The AgFF Program has selected research priorities on the basis of burden, need, and impact and collaborated with other NIOSH research programs to write the research goals in the NIOSH Strategic Plan for FYs 2019-2026. Priority areas include (but are not limited to):
- Conducting research to understand and decrease exposure to hazards that cause disease and injury in AgFF industries.
- Developing and evaluating control measures and technologies to protect workers.
- Producing educational, outreach, and prevention programs to guide workers and employers.
What we've accomplished
In 2022-2023, the Program:
- Brought together over 100 experts to shape worker safety considerations related to emerging technology for the Safety for Emerging Robotics and Autonomous Agriculture Workshop.
- Collaborated with NIOSH Ag Centers, the National Occupational Research Agenda, AgFF Sector Council and partners on the Fishing Forward Podcast sharing health information and interviews with commercial fishermen.
- Released online, on demand courses (in English and Spanish) for farm safety trainers on topics such as heat-related illness, infection prevention and control, sexual harassment prevention, pesticide safety, and dairy safety.
- Conducted a pilot study on the use of wearable technology to capture health data among logging workers.
- Partnered with industry groups in the Pacific Northwest and High Plains regions to create heat illness prevention training scripts and resources.
- Collaborated with Alaska Native set gillnetters and the Alaska Marine Safety Education Association to develop community-informed safety training and distribute 30 inflatable lifejackets to address rising fatalities in the fishery.
- Conducted a survey of manure applicators, finding they averaged 17-hour days in the busy season and 20% reported at least one symptom of gas exposure during application.
What's ahead
In the future, the Program aims to:
- Partner with the Food and Agriculture Organization, the Northeast center for Agriculture Safety and Health, and others to host the Sixth International Fishing Industry Safety and Health Conference (IFISH 6).
- Develop and disseminate a campaign, including new materials on mowing around water, to prevent youth worker fatalities and injuries due to mowers.
- Provide a NIOSH Ag Center mentorship opportunity for new Tribal bison herd workers with peers who have established herds.
- Organize 10 logging safety best practices trainings for professional and part-time loggers in partnership with Game of Logging across New York State.
Contacts
Contact the Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing program with any questions at NIOSHAgFF@cdc.gov
Resources
More information on this topic can be found on the following pages:
- Agricultural Safety Topic Page
- Commercial Fishing Safety Topic Page
- NIOSH/US Coast Guard Commercial Fishing Safety Research and Training Grants
NORA Council
The AgFF Program helps lead the NORA Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing Council, which brings together individuals and organizations to share information, form partnerships, and promote adoption and dissemination of solutions that work.
NIOSH-funded Centers for Agricultural Safety and Health
The extramural NIOSH Centers for Agricultural Safety and Health are found throughout the us and work to address the nation’s pressing agricultural health and safety problems through research, education, and prevention projects.
