National Children's Center for Rural and Agricultural Health and Safety

NCCRAHS Logo

The National Children's Center for Rural and Agricultural Health and Safety (NCCRAHS) is a part of the National Farm Medicine Center, one of the research centers of the Marshfield Clinic Research Foundation.^[1][2][3] The center is located headquartered in Marshfield, WI. and is primarily funded by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), which is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). As of 2016, the director, is Barbara C. Lee, PhD.

History

The National Children's Center for Rural and Agricultural Health and Safety (NCCRAHS) was established in 1997, ^[4][5] one of ten centers funded by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health ^[6] The mission of the NCCRAHS is to "enhance the health and safety of all children exposed to hazards associated with agricultural work and rural environments".^{[7][8][9][10]}

Projects and products

• Agritourism began as a project to develop safety and health guidelines specific to children for farmers and operators of US agritourism businesses.^[11][12] In 2007 the center created their first set of safety resources for agritourism operators and launched a new program - Integrating Safety into Agritourism,^[13] housed at www.SafeAgritourism.org.
• Cultivate Safety is a website for farm parents. It housse materials, resources, and content specifically geared toward parents of children who work, live, or visit farms.^[14] Out of the campaign grew a "Parent First, Farmer Second" radio ad series that received the 2013 Plambeck Award, Best Series.^[15][16]
• Mini-grants are provided to organizations, in the United States to support feasibility and pilot projects on prevention of childhood agricultural disease and injury.^{[17][18][19][20]}
• Model Policy is a voluntary guideline outlining best practices for employers that hire young workers. Information is included regarding the rationale for age-appropriate assignments, training needs for adolescent workers, ideal supervision, and mentoring by adult workers.
• North American Guidelines for Children's Agricultural Tasks is a collection of guidelines to assist parents and others in assigning age-appropriate tasks for children (ages 7–16) that live or work on ranches or farms in North America^[9][13][21]
• Nurture is the center's newsletter. "^[22]
• Safe Play was a project that designed the first comprehensive guidelines for constructing an outdoor safe play area on a farm.^[23][24][25]
• Safety Guidelines for Hired Adolescent Farmworkers is a series of 7 posters adviseing on supervisor responsibilities for ensuring work conditions are appropriate and adequate, and also used as an assessment tool for teen workers. These guidelines are available in English and Spanish .^{[8][26][27][28]}
• News Clippings data provides a source of injury and fatality data for researchers, academics, and government agencies. The center maintains the only publicly available database of news clippings data on injuries and deaths in agriculture, housed at www.AgInjuryNews.org.^[29]

References