Projects

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Since its inception in 1992, the Southeast Center has built and maintained a strong, transdisciplinary, “team science" approach to agricultural occupational safety and health. The team of investigators and key personnel funded through CDC/NIOSH Cooperative Agreement 2U54OH00757 includes nationally recognized leaders in public health, agricultural engineering, epidemiology, medicine and nursing, curriculum and instructional design, and communications. Together, these men and women are applying a holistic, systems-oriented approach to studying and solving persistent, emerging, and historically under-studied problems in agricultural occupational safety and health. This work is critical because workers in production agriculture, forestry, commercial fishing (AFF) and hunting experience a work-related fatality rate that is six times higher than that of all other industries (DOL 2011).

In the past, worker protection often emphasized behavioral training and the repetition of safety rules, with compliance sought through regulatory and administrative means. Less attention was paid to the importance of control technologies and to the circumstances and contingencies that cause individuals who know safety rules to violate those rules and risk injury or death. Likewise, little attention was paid to the direct and indirect costs of injury for the worker, employer, and their community. Recognizing this gap, the Center has conceived, developed and evaluated a set of narrative simulation exercises and cost-analysis tools that are effective in promoting voluntary risk-hazard reduction among adult workers and youth alike. These materials have been developed, field-tested and evaluated through the Kentucky ROPS Project (completed), Preventing Farm Injuries to Rural Youth (completed), and the Economics of Prevention (EOP II)(ongoing).

Other Center projects and activities address vulnerable populations (e.g., migrant and seasonal farm workers, older farmers), while two major translational projects, Nurses Utilizing Research, Service, Education and Practice (NURSE-AP) and Agricultural Safety & Health, are helping to train and equip the next generation of leaders in agricultural occupational safety and health. These projects constitute a model response to Healthy People 2020 objectives for further integrating core competencies in public health education, cultivating a highly skilled public health workforce, and improving public health infrastructure and preparedness (DHSS, 2010).

AgConnections newsletter

NIOSH Agricultural Centers newsletter

Produced on behalf of the NIOSH Agricultural Centers for Disease and Injury Research, Education, and Prevention: 

2011 was the final year of publication. Previous issues, produced by the Southwest Center (Tyler, TX), may be found on the National Agricultural Safety Database.

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Additional information and materials may be found on the National Agricultural Safety Database and via the Farm and Ranch eXtension in Safety and Health (FReSH) Community of Practice.