Health And Safety Jobs Scotland

Safety program cuts don't make sense for deadliest jobs

It simply doesn't make sense to defund a program that directly saves people's lives.

President Barack Obama's 2012 fiscal year budget eliminates funding for all agriculture, forestry and fishing research done by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, or NIOSH. That means fishing safety programs — budgeted at a mere $1.5 million — will cease to exist.

No more E-Stops that prevent fishermen from being wrapped around deck winches. Finding the perfect personal floatation device, or PFD, to prevent man overboards? A thing of the past.

Safety monitors for hatches and doors to prevent vessel sinkings? Sayonara! Stability and flooding rate indicators? Out the door!

Those are just a few of the life-saving innovations that NIOSH researchers have introduced to the fishing industry. NIOSH is not a regulatory agency, but a research organization established in 1970 to improve the safety and health of U.S. workers. It is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

A 2006 NIOSH review by the National Academies review called the fishing program "exemplary" and said "the NIOSH Alaska Field Station has executed its research according to how an ideal program would operate."

A core group of six people work within the fishing industry research component, said Jennifer Lincoln, an injury epidemiologist with the Commercial Fishing Research and Design Program based in Anchorage.

"We look at hazards in specific regions and fisheries, identify patterns and then work together with fishermen to come up with practical solutions that protect them and save lives," Lincoln said. "No one has ever looked at the entire country to see what the specific problems are in various fisheries. That's what NIOSH has brought to the table."

Cmdr. Chris Woodley, chief of the U.S. Coast Guard Prevention Department at Puget Sound, said the long partnership with NIOSH has been mutually beneficial.

"NIOSH has not only been able to help the Coast Guard on high risk fisheries but they are also very, very good at being an external auditor on how well we are doing with safety programs," Woodley said. "They have been extremely effective in pointing us in the right direction, and then evaluating how well we are doing."

Coast Guard programs are driven by NIOSH research, which can, "really get much more into the weeds," Woodley added, citing the study that included 200 fishermen field testing various PFDs on deck for a month and then rating them.

Jobs: EHP/Technical Officer - Food Safety (Scotland)

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