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Safety and Health Topics |
Agricultural Operations |
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The agricultural transitions from human to animal to mechanized power, and from
mechanical to chemical to genetically engineered tools, have increased farm productivity,
but have not decreased the health and safety stresses upon farmers(2-4). Over the last 20 years, agriculture has emerged
from the third to the most hazardous occupation(4-7).
Related Safety and Health Topics
Recognition
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Fatal Unintentional Farm Injuries Among Persons Less than 20 Years of Age in
the United States: Geographic Profiles. NIOSH Pub. No.
2001-131 (2001,
July), 13 pages. This document is a summary of fatal farm injuries to
persons less than 20 years of age as reported in the National Center for
Health Statistics (NCHS) Mortality Data from 1982 through 1996.นน Fatal farm injuries are defined in this report as those which occurred
on farms, regardless of production agriculture involvement. These
injuries include those sustained during chores, paid work, or
recreational activities such as hunting and swimming.
- Injuries Among Youth on Farms in the United States, 1998. DHHS (NIOSH) Publication No.
2001-154 (2001, June), 1.55 MB
PDF,
191 pages. This document presents national and regional data for nonfatal youth injuries on U.S. farms for 1998 and
identifies the major causes of injury to include falls, animals, and vehicles such as ATVs.
- Injuries Among Farm Workers in the United States, 1995. DHHS (NIOSH) Publication No.
2001-153 (2001, May), 618 KB
PDF,
179 pages. This publication provides detail on specific farm types and farm workers at high risk of work injuries and
summarizes nonfatal lost-time work injury estimates for the agricultural production industry for 1995. (Note: Electronic
version only contains Section I.)
- Pesticide
Illness & Injury Surveillance. NIOSH (2001, December), 5 pages.
Surveillance for occupational pesticide-related illness and injury is
designed to protect workers by determining the underlying causes of
over-exposure to pesticides in the workplace. Surveillance also serves
as an early warning system of any harmful effects not detected by
manufacturer testing of pesticides.
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Alert: Preventing Injuries and Deaths From Skid Steer Loaders. DHHS (NIOSH) Publication No.
98-117 (1998, February), 9 pages. Prevent injuries and deaths among workers who operate,
service, or work near skid steer loaders. This Alert describes six deaths involving skid
steer loaders and recommends methods for preventing similar incidents.
- Table 1 gives a topical overview of injurious
and physical agents, biological and chemical agents, and diseases of concern in
agriculture. This array of agents and health hazards is characteristic of, but rarely
unique to, agriculture. The health implications of many chemical agents are already well
known from other industries. However, for various reasons the traditional industrial
hygiene phases of recognition, evaluation, and control of health (and safety) hazards in
agriculture have lagged behind those in general industry.
- Agriculture is still the largest occupational group in the U.S., with some 10 to 20
million people depending upon one's criteria of "agriculture" (5). Table 2 depicts
the intrinsically seasonal nature of many segments of agriculture that not only causes the
size of this workforce to vary temporally and often geographically via migrant work groups
(4), but usually
has major effects on the
nature and intensity of the work itself. The mechanized commodities require minimum manual
tending while growing and are also highly automated during harvest. Bush and tree crops
require relatively low labor during their growing phases, but require high manual labor
during harvest. Raising and tending livestock tends to require frequent labor inputs but
has no harvest peak. And row crops are usually labor intensive throughout most of their
growing and harvest phases. These generalizations demonstrate agriculture's distinctively
wide diversity in intensity and temporal frequency of exposure to hazards, which makes it
difficult to generalize about agriculture as a whole.
- Further discussion of agricultural hazards is provided on an additional page.
- Farm Safety. OSHA Fact Sheet
(2002), 3 pages. Also available as a 48 KB
PDF file.
- Agricultural Lung Hazards. University of Cincinnati NetWellness #153; sponsored by the
American Lung Association (1996), 4 pages. Contains several short discussions of these
hazards.
- Alert:
Preventing Asthma in Animal Handlers. DHHS (NIOSH) Publication No.
97-116 (1998,
January), 13 pages. This document lists the types of workers who are more susceptible to
animal-related asthma, as well as methods for control.
- Farm Workers Health Problems Related to Air Quality Inside Livestock Barns. Ontario
Ministry of Agriculture (1997), 7 pages. The purposes of this Fact Sheet are to describe
several farm worker health problems that are related to air quality inside livestock
buildings and to consider possible methods to alleviate them.
- Asthma and Allergic Lung Diseases. Environmed Research, British Columbia, Canada (1997), 5
pages. This section contains information on agricultural asthma.
- Danger in the Dust. L. Lang, Environmental Health Perspectives 104(1)
(1997, May 1), 4 pages. A comprehensive summary of agricultural aerosols.
- Organic Dust Toxicity Syndrome (ODTS or Grain Fever). M.P. Andersen, M.S.,
University of Missouri Pulmonary Division (1995, November 30), 1 page. A
comparison of ODTS and Farmer's Lung.
- National Agricultural Safety Database
(NASD). An extensive compendium of agricultural safety
and health education and information resources. NASD contains a complete listing and some
text for more than 2,000 health and safety publications from 25 states, 4 federal agencies and
5 national organizations. Available on a CD-ROM.
- Nurses Using Rural Sentinel Events (NURSE) Project.
California Public Health
Foundation (1991-1996), 3 pages. NURSE is an occupational agricultural surveillance project that focused on
agricultural injury and illness prevention in the California communities of Fresno and
Monterey counties. The reports provide summaries of accident investigations with the
intent of preventing similar accidents.
- Injuries Among Farm Workers in the United States, 1993. DHHS (NIOSH) Publication No. 97-115
(1997, April), 368 pages, 6.8 MB PDF file or 8 separate PDF files. Injury data for farm
workers.
- Agricultural Safety & Health Inspection Project. CAL/OSHA (2000, December),
1.66 MB
PDF, 16 pages
- Farm Labor Contractors Guide. CAL/OSHA (2000, May),
3.5 MB
PDF,
76 pages. This page is also available in
Spanish.
- Guidance For Controlling Potential Risks To Workers Exposed to Class B Biosolids.
DHHS (NIOSH) Publication Number 2002-149 (2002, July), 7 pages.
Evaluation
- Assessment of occupational exposure to pesticides in Dutch bulb
culture and glasshouse horticulture. Brouwer, D.H. (2002).
- Safety in Swine Production Systems. North Carolina and Illinois extension specialists (1996,
March), 4 pages, Publication No. PIH-104. A fairly detailed description of gas and aerosol
hazards in livestock production buildings.
- Farm Health and Safety Checklist. Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Agriculture, 5
pages. This document has been prepared with financial assistance from the Canadian
government.
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Noise on the Farm Can Cause Hearing Loss. Fact Sheet, Ohio State University, 3 pages.
- California - Department of Pesticide Regulation
This site provides useful information relating to pesticides. It includes a searchable database of
Worker Health & Safety Reports, consumer information, and other publications.
- EXTension
TOXicology NETwork (EXTOXNET). A combined effort of the University of California, Davis; Oregon
State University; Michigan State University; Cornell University; and the
University of Idaho to make toxicology-related information more widely available via Pesticide Information Profiles, Toxicology Information Briefs, and Fact Sheets.
- National Children's Center for Rural and Agricultural Health and Safety, based in the Marshfield Clinic,
Marshfield, WI. Dedicated to helping reduce rural and agricultural injuries among children.
- Farm Safety 4 Just Kids. A non-profit organization located in Earlham, IA, advocating the
prevention of farm-related childhood injuries, health risks and fatalities.
Control
- OSHA's Field Sanitation Standard. OSHA Fact Sheet 92-25 (1992), 1 page.
- The MidWest Plan Service (MWPS). An organization of extension and research agricultural
engineers from 12 northcentral states and the USDA that produces a series of useful
publications available through local Land Grant Universities. Of particular relevance are
a series of three livestock building ventilation design documents: Heating, Cooling, &
Tempering Air (MWPS-34), Mechanical Ventilating Systems- Livestock Housing (MWPS-32), and Natural Ventilating Systems- Livestock Housing
(MWPS-33). Other MWPS farm safety documents
include Extinguishing Silo Fires (NRAES-18),
Farm Accident Rescue (NRAES-10), Fire Control in Livestock Buildings (NRAES-39), and First
on the Scene (NRAES-12).
- The National Center for Farmworker Health.
A private, not-for-profit corporation, has evolved into a multi-faceted organization that provides a wide range of services to
improve the health of the migrant workers who harvest America's crops.
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The Worker Protection Standard for Agricultural Pesticides. EPA 1992 WPS (1993), 4 pages. This is the table of contents with links
to the entire document.
- EPA Warning Signs. EPA Office of Pesticide Programs (1999, July 6), 2
pages. Description of warning sign requirements, including examples of
warning signs in other languages.
- Control of Organic Dusts From Bedding Choppers in Dairy Barns. DHHS (NIOSH) Publication No.
97-103 (1997, April), 2 pages. Also available as a 212 KB
PDF file.
- Recommendations to Improve Safety in Potato Harvesting and Packing in Southern Colorado.
NIOSH Publication HHE-980172 (2000, April 10).
- Simple Solutions: Ergonomics for Farm Workers. NIOSH Publication No. 2001-111 (2001, February),
1.52 MB PDF, 53 pages. This pamphlet is about early intervention to prevent injuries. It is
directed toward growers, safety specialists, human resources managers or
anyone with an interest in having safe farms. This pamphlet is also available in
Spanish.
Compliance
Training
- An accessible list of publications produced by the Iowa State University Agricultural Extension covering
a wide variety of typical Extension topics.
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Farm Family Health. Health Surveillance and Epidemiology Division, Health
Canada (2000, May 5), 1 page. A Canadian newsletter developed to communicate results of farm family
health research to the participants and agencies interested in agricultural (farm family) health issues. Last issue was Spring 2000.
- Atlantic Canada Farm
Health and Safety Web Site.
Designed for those working in farm safety, including farm
managers who are responsible for their health and others working in their operation
(including a focus on children). Contains several practical guidelines and checklists.
- AgSafe Agricultural Safety Training
Materials. National Ag Safety Database (NASD) (2002, April), 3 pages. Twelve safety training modules (scripted in both English and Spanish) developed by AgSafe, a
California-based non-profit coalition, for supervisors of farm workers.
- NIOSH-funded Agricultural Health & Safety Centers
Other
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