The Pacific Northwest Agricultural Safety and Health Center (PNASH) is one of eight regional Health and Safety Centers around the nation funded by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). It serves Idaho, Oregon, Washington and Alaska and is tasked with determining the major health and safety hazards in agriculture in these four states. Agriculture, in this case, includes the timber industry and commercial fishing, as well as farming.
The Center, which also receives state funding, is housed in the Department of Environmental Health at the University of Washington. It has the following goals to improve the health of agricultural producers, workers and their families:
The Center works with the affected industries in conducting its research, outreach, training and evaluation programs. Earlier this year, the Center sponsored a Farm Summit in Portland, Oregon, attended by about 50 farm operators, farm workers, equipment manufacturers, government officials, health care providers and researchers. These individuals, representing different perspectives of the farming industry, were asked to advise the Center on what they thought were the most significant health and safety problems in farming. The information which came out of this one-day meeting is currently being analyzed and the results will help organizations in the Northwest to establish priorities for future research projects.
A Fishing Summit, designed to accomplish the same objectives for the region's commercial fishing industry, is planned for next year. In the future, a Timber Summit will also be held that will have the same objectives for the lumber industry in the states served by the Center. In addition to determining which hazards those working in the various industries consider most severe, the summits will establish an industry advisory committee. This group of experts from various fields will advise Center researchers regarding industry problems and potential solutions in the states of Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Washington.
The Center Director is Dr. Richard Fenske, an environmental health scientist with extensive experience in evaluating and preventing pesticide exposures. The co-director is Dr. Matthew Keifer, an occupational medicine physician who has conducted research on pesticide exposures in the United States and Central America. He sees patients in a farm workers clinic located in the Yakima Valley. Other Center staff members include the Associate Director Sharon Morris, who is in charge of the Center's outreach, training and evaluation programs; Dr. Pamela Elkind, director of the Center for Farm Health and Safety at Eastern Washington University at Cheney, which is affiliated with PNASH; Dr. Bruce Alexander, an epidemiologist; Adrienne Hidy, the Center's Program Manager; Marcy White, Program Assistant at the Center; and Norm Herdrich, the Center's Outreach Coordinator.
The Center currently has a number of research programs underway. These run the gamut from an examination of occupational skin disorders in the region's farming, fishing and forestry industries to an intervention program designed to train women to be health and safety assessors on their farm. Topics of study also include exposure of farm children to pesticides; an examination of orchard workers exposed to pesticide residues when thinning fruit; the establishment of a fluorescent tracer evaluation program which is aimed at reducing skin exposure to pesticides among agricultural workers; the evaluation of a field test kit for cholinesterase monitoring to determine if use of such a kit provides advantages in promptness of worker removal from a hazardous situation; and evaluation of how children of farm workers are exposed to lead and arsenic.
In addition to conducting its own research, the Center also provides support to investigators seeking their own funding for agricultural health and safety projects. One research study, for example, is focusing on the causes of injuries to children and adolescents in the farming industry. This project, conducted by Dr. Bruce Alexander in the Yakima Valley of Central Washington, aims to determine the number, ages, and gender of children injured, as well as the causes and severity of the accidents.
Additional information about the Ag Safety and Health Center can be obtained by phone at 509-926-1704, or e-mail normh@u.washington.edu.
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