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[Federal Register Volume 74, Number 49 (Monday, March 16, 2009)]
[Notices]
[Pages 11112-11113]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E9-5583]

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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

[Docket Number NIOSH-145]

Notice of Public Comment Period for the NIOSH Childhood 
Agricultural Injury Prevention Initiative

    Authority: 29 U.S.C. 669(a).

AGENCY: National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) 
of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Department of 
Health and Human Services (HHS).

ACTION: Notice of Document Available for Public Comment.

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SUMMARY: The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health 
(NIOSH) of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) 
announces the availability of the following document which encompasses 
progress to-date and planned future activities of the NIOSH Childhood 
Agricultural Injury Prevention Initiative. The document, NIOSH 
Childhood Agricultural Injury Prevention Initiative: Progress and 
Proposed Future Activities, can be found at http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/review/public/145/.
    Public Comment Period: March 16, 2009 to May 15, 2009.
    Purpose: To seek comments on the progress and proposed future 
activities of the Childhood Agricultural Injury Prevention Initiative 
begun by NIOSH in October 1996, in order to ensure that the program is 
meeting the needs of stakeholders (e.g., national youth agricultural 
injury prevention organizations, agricultural youth injury prevention 
groups, individuals, etc.) and other interested members of the public, 
and to identify ways in which the program can be improved to increase 
its impact on the safety of children in agriculture. A review of 
progress and public comment on the proposed future activities of the 
NIOSH Childhood Agricultural injury Prevention Initiative is desired 
periodically to assess whether the NIOSH Childhood Agricultural Injury 
Prevention Initiative is addressing the most pressing issues and areas 
of childhood agricultural injury prevention. NIOSH will compile and 
consider all comments received through the NIOSH docket and use them in 
making decisions on how to proceed with the Childhood Agricultural 
Injury Prevention Initiative.
    Background: The problem of children being injured while living, 
working, or visiting agricultural work environments (farms) has been 
recognized for several decades. The most recent data suggest about 100 
youths under the age of 20 die on farms each year and about 27,600 
farm-related injuries occur to the same age group. Many individuals and 
groups have advocated for the prevention of agricultural injuries 
experienced by youths, and media attention has been generated on the 
issue, but until 1996 a national coordinated effort to address the 
problem had not existed.
    In April 1996, the National Committee for Childhood Agricultural 
Injury Prevention (NCCAIP) published a report entitled Children and 
Agriculture: Opportunities for Safety and Health, A National Action 
Plan to promote the health and safety of children exposed to 
agricultural hazards. The National Action Plan recommends leadership, 
surveillance, research, education, and public policy. The plan 
specifically recommended that NIOSH serve as the lead federal agency in 
preventing childhood agricultural injury. Due in large part to the 
efforts by NCCAIP to raise awareness and concern about childhood 
agricultural injury issues, in October 1996, NIOSH began implementing a 
Childhood Agricultural Injury Prevention Initiative. In July, 1999, a 
review was conducted by NIOSH to seek input on the progress and 
direction of the Childhood Agricultural Injury Prevention Initiative

[[Page 11113]]

to date. The input provided by stakeholders at that meeting was useful 
in providing insight into stakeholder needs and in helping to improve 
the Childhood Agricultural Injury Prevention Initiative.
    In 2001, a Childhood Agricultural Injury Prevention Summit was 
organized and convened by the National Children's Center for Rural and 
Agricultural Health and Safety (NCCRAHS), an extramurally funded 
component, five years after the implementation of the NIOSH Childhood 
Agricultural Injury Prevention Initiative. The goal of the summit was 
to conduct a five-year review of the 1996 National Action Plan and to 
use a consensus development process to generate strategies for the 
future. Specifically, participants were asked to consider: (a) 
Successes to date, (b) gaps and barriers in achieving objectives, (c) 
current and potential effective interventions not addressed in the 
National Action Plan, and (d) strategies for the future. To date, NIOSH 
has undertaken a number of activities, both intramurally and 
extramurally, to address the recommendations in the 1996 National 
Action Plan and the 2001 Childhood Agricultural Injury Prevention 
Summit.
    Status: The Document, NIOSH Childhood Agricultural Injury 
Prevention Initiative: Progress and Proposed Future Activities, will be 
available for comment by stakeholders and other interested members of 
the public. Written comments should be submitted to the NIOSH Docket 
Office as outlined in the next section.
    Docket: Written comments on the usefulness of the Childhood 
Agricultural Injury Prevention Initiative for improving childhood 
agricultural safety and suggestions for enhancing or improving the 
impact of the Initiative should be mailed to the NIOSH Docket Office, 
Robert A. Taft Laboratories, MS-C34, 4676 Columbia Parkway, Cincinnati, 
Ohio 45226, telephone (513) 533-8303, facsimile (513) 533-8285. 
Comments may also be submitted by e-mail to [email protected]. E-
mail attachments should be formatted in Microsoft Word. All materials 
submitted to the Agency should reference NIOSH docket number 145 and 
must be submitted by May 15, 2009 to be considered by the Agency. All 
electronic comments should be formatted as Microsoft Word. All 
information received in response to this notice will be available for 
public examination and copying at the NIOSH Docket Office, Room 111, 
4676 Columbia Parkway, Cincinnati, Ohio 45226. After the comment period 
has closed, comments may be accessed electronically at http://www.cdc.gov/niosh under the link to the NIOSH docket. As appropriate, 
NIOSH will post comments with the commenters' names, affiliations, and 
other information, on the Internet.
    Contact Person for Technical Information: David Hard, Health 
Scientist, Analysis and Field Investigations Branch, Division of Safety 
Research, telephone (304) 285-6068, E-mail [email protected], facsimile 
(304) 285-6235.

    Dated: March 9, 2009.
James D. Seligman,
Chief Information Officer, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
 [FR Doc. E9-5583 Filed 3-13-09; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4163-19-P
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