Pacific Northwest Agricultural Safety and Health Center
Pacific Northwest Agricultural Safety and Health Center collaborates with businesses and workers to improve health and safety in the nation's deadliest industries: agriculture, forestry, and fishing.
Photo: Stacey Holland
Helping industry develop best practices for worker health and safety
"People in the workplace are the experts." That's the philosophy of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Pacific Northwest Agricultural Safety and Health Center (PNASH). PNASH collaborates with businesses and workers to improve health and safety in the nation's deadliest industries: agriculture, forestry, and fishing. Fatality rates in agriculture, fishing, and forestry are nearly 10 times that of other industries, averaging more than 25 deaths per 100,000 workers each year. Cutting the risk of workplace injuries and fatalities benefits businesses by reducing costs. And most important: it saves lives and prevents permanent disabilities.
Agriculture
"Our PNASH team of physicians, industrial hygienists, and health educators brings professional expertise to the table, but it is farm managers, workplace supervisors, and pesticide handlers who have the experience and skills to identify the most practical and cost-effective methods of reducing pesticide exposure. Their input is essential to finding health and safety solutions," said PNASH Director Richard Fenske, a professor in our department.
PNASH and Washington state safety educators and growers work together to reduce exposure to organophosphate pesticides among agriculture workers. The PNASH team worked with area growers, clinics, and pesticide handlers to identify practices on the farm that affect exposures. They found that key risk factors are the tasks of mixing and loading pesticides and cleaning spray equipment. Protective factors include using a full-face respirator and chemical-resistant boots. These and other farm-based solutions will be highlighted in an upcoming PNASH publication, Practical Solutions for Pesticide Safety. PNASH has also developed innovative safety training using fluorescent tracers that show workers and managers how pesticide residues cling to protective gear, skin, and clothing.
In addition, PNASH focuses on musculoskeletal risks, especially in Washington's orchards, where about 8.5% of workers are injured each year. Orchard injuries, including falls from ladders, are costly, accounting for 45–58% of workers' compensation claims in Washington state, the nation's number one producer of apples. To minimize falls and reduce labor costs, some orchards are replacing ladders with mobile platforms that move workers from tree to tree. However, this equipment requires workers to lean and reach in new ways. "We need to know how the different work habits will affect musculoskeletal risks," said Jim Doornink, an orchard owner and member of the Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission. Associate Professor Peter Johnson and PNASH staff are addressing this need by analyzing the ergonomics of the platforms and other technologies, such as safer ladders and harvesting bags, which reduce shoulder and back strain. "They're working with us in trying to get ahead of the curve," said Doornink. "We'd like to get the right design now rather than years down the road."
Forestry
Rates of injury and death in logging and related industries have often been cyclical, according to Affiliate Professor John Garland, who leads PNASH's work in logging safety and who is an emeritus professor of forest engineering at Oregon State University. For example, injuries among Oregon loggers increased 77% after the 1980–1981 recession, as companies quickly rebuilt their work forces. Garland sees the potential for the same post-recessionary spike in injuries now and is working to head it off by developing training programs in collaboration with Research Scientist Richard Neitzel (PhD, Environmental and Occupational Hygiene, 2009) and the Associated Oregon Loggers (AOL), an organization of contract logging operators, most with seven or fewer employees.
Small firms such as AOL members are especially in need of help, said Garland. "It's all on-the-job training." Garland, Neitzel, and AOL are developing programs to identify logging masters and teach them how to be successful trainers. "Training used to be an older guy yelling at a new guy, and that's not very effective," said Garland. Because many new loggers are Hispanic, Garland has written training materials in both Spanish and English.
Garland is also working with industry to make logging less hazardous, especially for older loggers who may be more at risk for injury. His ergonomic studies include a series on replacing steel wire with synthetic rope, which has one ninth the weight. Workers over age 45 make up the majority of the Pacific Northwest's forestry work force.
Other PNASH projects have addressed health and safety issues in harvesting forest products, such as cedar and greenery used in floral arrangements.
Fishing
The fatality rate of commercial fishers in Alaska has dropped by 42% since 1990. This decline resulted from a variety of collaborative safety programs. To further reduce fatalities, PNASH recently partnered with the nonprofit Alaska Marine Safety Education Association (AMSEA) to learn how often fishers need to take refresher training. The study determined that safety skills, such as the ability to don an immersion suit within 60 seconds, declined about 30% within the first three months after training. "We found out that the first month after training is the time to process the skills you've learned," said AMSEA Executive Director Jerry Dzugen. After the study results were provided to the US Coast Guard, Congress proposed that fishers take refresher training more frequently.
Thanks in part to safety training, deaths resulting from vessel sinkings have decreased, but those from falls overboard remain high, totaling 155 nationwide from 2000 to 2009. None of these fishers were wearing a personal flotation device (PFD). In an effort to increase use of these safety devices, Jennifer Lincoln and her research team at the NIOSH Alaska Field Station asked fishers in Alaska to evaluate PFDs and identify which could be comfortably worn on deck. She then collaborated with PNASH and the US Coast Guard to learn which PFDs were most practical to wear during the aerobically demanding work of catching Dungeness crab. Dungeness fishers work on small vessels in extremely rough waters, such as river bars and near-shore surf, and fatalities often occur when vessels sink too rapidly for crews to deploy life rafts or don PFDs.
The research team has surveyed fishers on their safety practices and asked them to test a variety of PFDs. "Many were not aware of the innovative designs out there," said Lincoln. In recent years, manufacturers have designed PFDs that are nearly identical to the gear fishers already wear, such as rain gear with thin layers of imbedded flotation. "People want to be safe," she said, "but they want equipment that's relevant and practical to their work situation."
For more information
Pesticide risk information and worker training materials in English and Spanish
Logging training materials in English and Spanish.
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) on fishing