It is difficult to separate agricultural health issues from safety issues because they are often interrelated. Major program emphasis in the past was usually directed toward safety. Health, as a subject for discussion, did receive attention in situations where it was difficult to ignore as a significant factor in farm accidents and farm safety problems. Although farm safety specialists did not have the word health in their titles, most job descriptions included health as one of the primary areas of program emphasis. Related rural youth and women's programs, including those of extension, vocational agriculture and farm organizations were labeled "health and safety" programs, designating equal emphasis on both subjects.

The relationship between health and safety has always been a reality. It has been only in recent years that health has achieved greater visibility and subsequent recognition in farm safety work. NIFS emphasis on health issues also has changed dramatically over the years because of this recognition. Of perhaps equal or greater importance has been the increase in the number of health professional members and their inclusion in NIFS programs and activities.

A brief review of the growth of agricultural or rural health will assist in placing it in proper historical and professional perspective. One of the earliest rural health efforts of note was a technical paper in a 1939 medical journal. Dr. John Powers, a rural surgeon, described 10 years of farm injuries at the hospital in which he worked. Additional professional work in rural and agricultural health began at the University of Iowa. The Kellogg Foundation provided funds for an Institute of Agricultural Medicine in 1955 with Dr. Clyde Berry serving as the first director. The initial focus of the institute's work included zoonotic diseases, farm accidents, chemical toxicology and cultural anthropology. Subsequent funding from Kellogg and the state legislature increased both the size and scope of the institute's operation.

Rural health, as a program entity, continued to grow somewhat in proportion to the increasing numbers of health professionals and health institutions entering the field. In the early 1970's, Dr. Dean Emanuel and his co-workers at the Marshfield Clinic in Wisconsin evaluated farm dusts and their health consequences. The result was a landmark paper published in 1975 that discussed their observations and identified farmer's lung disease. Marshfield also initiated work on the problems of milker's knee and hearing loss.

In the later 1960's and early 1970's, Rollin Schneider, safety specialist at the University of Nebraska, was involved in studies that looked at farmers' exposure to noise. These studies originally focused on farm tractor operators but later branched out to other types of equipment.

The link between health and safety eventually became clear to professionals working in both areas. Joint programs were initiated and professional networking provided positive results for both program areas. NIFS membership became a reality for health professionals, and their contributions enriched NIFS programs. History has a way of repeating itself. As in the past, the acceptance of new members with new interests and program emphases into the NIFS membership roster has given the organization a slightly different focus and thus a new vitality.

9 Return to History of NIFS