Welcome to SCAHIP
- About us
- History & Aims
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America's farmers and farm workers feed and clothe the United States and much of the world as well. Yet these men, women, and youth experience rates of occupational injury, illness and death that are up to 4 times higher than those of workers in other occupations. In cooperation with the Centers for Disease Control / National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (CDC/NIOSH), the Southeast Center supports and conducts research, education, and prevention activities to reduce occupational illness and injury and improve the safety and health of agricultural workers and their families in the southeastern United States.
The Southeast Center is directed by
Robert H. McKnight, MPH, ScD,
Professor of Preventive Medicine and Environmental Health in the University of Kentucky College of Public Health
The Southeast Center for Agricultural Health and Injury Prevention was established in 1991 as one of a select number of agricultural research centers funded by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (CDC/NIOSH). Dedicated to developing and promoting transdisciplinary approaches to the health and safety of agricultural workers and rural populations, the Center serves stakeholders in ten states: Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, West Virginia, and Virginia.
As a NIOSH agricultural research center located on a land-grant university campus with a College of Public Health, the Southeast Center is well positioned to achieve its mission. The Center's location allows for mutually beneficial collaboration among researchers and practitioners in public health, agriculture, behavioral science, communications, engineering, economics, nursing, toxicology, and other disciplines. On May 4, 2004, the Board of Trustees granted college status to what was at that time a school of public health within the College of Preventive Medicine, making the UK College of Public Health the sixth college at the University of Kentucky Chandler Medical Center and the first new college at UK in nearly 40 years. In May 2005, the College of Public Health received full accreditation for the maximum five years from the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH). As a result, the UK College of Public Health is now an accredited member of the Association of Schools of Public Health. The College and the Southeast Center serve a state that ranks fifth in the nation for its total number of working farms.
Recognizing the multiple linkages affecting public health (IOM, 2001) and the importance of strategic systems thinking when addressing challenges in public health, the Center’s investigators and staff work closely with colleagues from the UK Colleges of Medicine, Agriculture, Nursing, Education, Communications, and Engineering, as well as with researchers and practitioners from various external agencies and institutions. This transdisciplinary approach lends an array of resources and skills to the Center and enhances its capabilities in research, education, outreach, and prevention. Today, the Southeast Center continues to focus on -
The Southeast Center has developed a series of courses, seminars, and field practice experiences open to students in the MPH, DrPH, and PhD programs in the UK College of Public Health who are interested in public health issues involving agriculture and rural populations. The Health of Agricultural Populations is a key research-to-practice (r2p) activity of the Southeast Center. Another core education/translation project is the Nurse Agricultural Education Project, which was likewise originally funded by CDC/NIOSH in 2001. Now in its second 5-year phase, the project continues to cultivate nurse researchers and practitioners who are well equipped to identify and address diseases and injuries associated with production agriculture. Prospective graduate students are encouraged to read more about the Health of Agricultural Populations emphasis area and the Nurse Agricultural Education Project on these pages. Researchers, farm operators, and other visitors are also encouraged to explore the useful information and links available through this site.
In 2006 workers in production agriculture, forestry, and commercial fishing (AFF) experienced an occupational fatality rate of 30 per 100,000 workers – a rate more than 7 times higher the overall industry rate of 4 per 100,000 workers and the highest of any occupational group (DOL, 2009). The average annual rate of agricultural fatalities is high in the southeastern United States, with Florida, Tennessee, and Kentucky reporting some of the largest annual numbers of fatal occupational injuries in agriculture, forestry, and fishing (NIOSH, 2004).
In addition to serving stakeholders in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Florida, the Southeast Center for Agricultural Health and Injury Prevention serves agricultural populations in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, West Virginia, and Virginia. In this 10-state region, AFF workers and their families face safety and health hazards that often differ from those experienced by their counterparts elsewhere. Topography, crops, machinery, livestock and weather patterns that are common to Wisconsin, Iowa, or California, for example, are not necessarily the same as those found in the Southeast. Exposure patterns and their sequelae differ based on regional landscape, heat, humidity, product(s), and transport variables.
The differences are not only environmental and agricultural, but often socioeconomic as well: The strong sense of cultural pride and community self-sufficiency found in many regions of the Southeast poses a potential barrier when prevention programs designed by “outsiders” are implemented without respect for, and adaptation to, the cultural and historical aspects of farming in the South. Program implementation is often difficult because of the diffuse, small-scale nature of the region’s agricultural base: owners and operators in the Southeast tend to be small-acreage family farmers, who often maintain off-farm employment as well.
Three additional factors set apart the Southeast from much of the nation: racial diversity, illiteracy, and poverty. According to the USDA Economic Research Service (ERS), the rural South has the highest and most persistent poverty rates in the nation, with counties defined as being “persistently poor” if 20 percent or more of their populations were poor over the past 30 years, as measured by the 1970, 1980, 1990, and 2000 decennial censuses. USDA-ERS notes that the non-metro South, with over 40 percent of the U.S. non-metro population, has the greatest prevalence of both poverty and persistent poverty.
Not only are many people in the Southeast poor, but tax bases are often inadequate to build and maintain a vibrant public health infrastructure. Illiteracy and low education levels in the Southeast among whites, African Americans, and migrant populations create barriers to communication and to effective delivery of prevention programs.
Another barrier to improving agricultural safety and health in the Southeast is the remnant of a dual system of higher education that separated agricultural programs at large land-grant colleges (historically white campuses) from programs at smaller Historically Black Colleges and Universities. This division, which has affected even Cooperative Extension Service activities, is a product of the Morrill land-grant acts of 1862 (white) and 1890 (African American).
The Southeast Center covers a region that is both historically and culturally fascinating and fraught with public health challenges and needs. These characteristics create an array of meaningful opportunities for research and service.
References
Joliffe, Dean. USDA ERS. Rural poverty at a glance. Rural Resource and Development Report (RRDR-100). 2004 Jul. Accessed online at http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/rdrr100/ [2010 Oct 18].
Mansfield CJ, Wilson JL, Kobrinski EJ, Mitchell J. Premature mortality in the United States: The roles of geographic area, socioeconomic status, household type, and availability of medical care. Am J Public Health.1999 Jun;89(6):893-8.
Safran ES, Cohen LP, Caplan LS, Ohuabunwa UK, Pharagood-Wade F. Barriers to occupational and environmental medicine services in the southeastern United States. J Occup Environ Med. 2005 Mar;47(3):219-25.
United States Bureau of the Census. Historical Poverty Tables. Table 9. Poverty of people, by region: 1959 to 2005. Available online at http:// www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/histpov/hstpov9.html [accessed September 13, 2006]
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. NIOSH. Worker Health Chartbook, 2004. Available online at http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/2004-146/ [accessed 2011 April 4].
United States Department of Labor. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Fatal workplace injuries in 2006: A collection of data and analysis. Chart 19. Number and rate of fatal occupational injuries, by major occupation group, 2006. Available online at http://www.bls.gov/iif/oshwc/cfoi/cfoi2006_19.pdf
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) funded agricultural centers:
- Great Lakes Center for Agricultural Safety and Health
- Great Plains Center for Agricultural Health
- High Plains Intermountain Center for Agricultural Health and Safety (HICAHS)
- National Children's Center for Rural and Agricultural Health and Safety
- Northeast Center for Agricultural and Occupational Health
- Pacific Northwest Agricultural Safety and Health Center (Washington)
- Southern Coastal Agromedicine Center
- Southwest Center for Agricultural Health, Injury Prevention, and Education
- Western Center for Agricultural Health and Safety (UC-Davis)