A National Childhood Agricultural Injury Prevention Initiative

Abstract

The problem of children being injured as a result of living, visiting or working on afarm has been recognized for several decades. Although many individuals and groupshave crusaded for the prevention of childhood agricultural injuries over the years, untilrecently, there has not been a national coordinated effort. In fiscal year (FY) 1997 theU.S. Congress provided targeted funding to the National Institute for OccupationalSafety and Health (NIOSH) to implement a National Childhood Agricultural InjuryPrevention Initiative. NIOSH goals for the initiative are to fill critical data needs;establish an infrastructure which facilitates the use of data to develop and improveupon prevention efforts; encourage the use of effective prevention strategies by theprivate and public sectors; and, to increase the involvement of the private sector in bothprevention and research efforts. A panel of experts in agricultural injury surveillancewas convened to evaluate existing surveillance programs and identify the mostpromising strategies for surveillance. NIOSH has funded research grants in a numberof priority areas, including: etiology; outcomes of youth farm work and injuries;intervention strategies; and, evaluation of commonly used educational or trainingprograms. Through a cooperative agreement, the National Childrens Center for Ruraland Agricultural Health and Safety was established. The Center will coordinate andpromote the use of state-of-the art prevention information and organize multiperspectiveteams which will use consensus-building to arrive at recommendedguidelines. A government agency task force will work toward facilitating a coordinatedand informed public response, and a workshop will be held to begin exploringmechanisms for involving the private sector in research and prevention efforts.