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

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Fact Sheet - Agricultural Safety and Children

Population at Risk

Number of farms
  • In 2001, there were approximately 2.16 million farms in the United States.1
Number of children
  • In 2001, an estimated 1,475,971 youth under 20 years of age lived or worked on a farm.2
  • An estimated 666,500 youth not living on farms were employed to work on farms in 1998.3
  • In 2000, approximately 416,000 youth under 20 years lived, visited or worked on one of the estimated 50,000 racial-minority operated farms in the U.S.4
Adolescents hired in crop production*
  • Approximately 128,000 14-17 year old migrant/seasonal farmworkers were working in crop production* from 1993-1998. These youth comprise about 7% of all hired migrant/seasonal farmworkers working on crops.5,6
  • About 6% of all farmworker dependents travel with their families and work alongside their parents.5
  • Eighteen percent of teens 14-17 years of age working in crop production* are children of farmers who are hired by farmers other than their parents.5
  • The largest group of teen farmworkers working in crop production* (47%) are economically independent (emancipated minors). Eighty percent of emancipated minors working in agriculture are 16-17 years old, 89% are male, 85% are Latino, and 70% are recent arrivals without authorization to the U.S.5

*Applies to youth hired to work with crops including animal forage and greenhouse crops that are food crops. Determined by the National Agricultural Workers Survey.

Toll of Childhood Agricultural Injuries

Fatalities
  • An estimated 104 children younger than 20 years of age die of agricultural injuries on U.S. farms and ranches annually.7
Fatality Rate
  • Work-related agricultural fatalities for youth age 15-19 years is 12.2 per 100,000 full-time equivalent (FTE). This rate is comparable to those of adults working in agriculture, 20-54 years old.8
Injuries
  • Approximately 22,648 injuries occurred to children or adolescents under the age of 20 who lived on, worked on, or visited a farm operation in 2001.2
Injury Rate
  • Children who live, work, or visit a farm have an agricultural-related injury rate of 12.7 per 1000 youth.2
  • Most injuries occur to youth who are part of the farm household (rate of 15.7 injuries per 1000 youth).2

Characteristics of Injured Children

Gender
  • Injuries to males account for 86% of all agricultural-related youth injuries with a rate of 2.4 per 100 FTE. Females experience rates of 1.5 per 100 FTE.9
Production type
  • Crop production accounts for 52% of all work-related fatalities to children.8 Fifty two percent of injuries to all farm youth occur in livestock operations.3
  • The majority of fatalities to males occur in crop production. Fatalities to females occur primarily in livestock production. 8
Location
  • The highest rates (per 100,000 FTE) of fatal injury to children occur in crop production in the Midwest (35), South (16.2), and West (15.1). In the Northeast, the highest rates of fatalities (13.2 per 100,000 FTE) occur in livestock production.8
Age
  • Nearly 40% of males who are fatally injured are 15-19 years. Approximately 40% of the female fatalities are 0-4 years.10
  • When comparing pediatric work-related injury rates, children 0-6 years of age had higher injury rates (2.01 per 100 FTE) than children 7-19 years of age (.54 per FTE).13
Work status
  • Sixty three percent of injuries occurring to children on farms are not work-related.2
  • Of children less than 16 years of age, 64% of work-related fatalities occur to children on family-owned farms.8
Nature of injury
  • Almost half of nonfatal injuries result in contusions/abrasions and lacerations.9
  • Nearly two-thirds of agricultural fatalities to youth involve head injuries.7

Description of Agricultural Injury

Source of injury
  • Farm machinery (including tractors) is the leading source of fatality, accounting for 36% of deaths to youth less than 20 years of age. Thirty percent of farm machinery-related deaths are among children less than five years of age.10
  • Machinery (excluding tractors) accounts for 24% of the occupational injuries among farm workers 10-19 years of age. 11
  • Drowning is the second leading mechanism of death on farms (27%) with children less than 5 years of age accounting for 32% of the deaths.10
  • Animals account for 20% of non-fatal injuries to children on farms.12
  • Falls are the leading mechanism of injury to youth less than 20 years of age (22%), followed by off road transportation incidents (15%), and being struck by objects (11%).3

References

  1. USDA-National Agricultural Statistics Service (2002). Statistical Highlights of U.S. Agriculture: 2001-2002. Available at http://www.usda.gov/nass/pubs/stathigh/2002/stathi2002.pdf.
  2. USDA-National Agricultural Statistics Service (2004). 2001 Childhood Agricultural-Related Injuries. Available at http://jan.mannlib.cornell.edu/reports/nassr/other/injury/injr0104.pdf.
  3. Myers, J. R., & Hendricks, K.J. (2001). Injuries Among Youth on Farms in the United States, 1998 (DHHS/NIOSH Publication No. 2001-154). Cincinnati, OH: National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Available at http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/childag/pdfs/2001154.pdf.
  4. Goldcamp, M., Hendricks, K., Layne, L., Myers, J. (2003). Non-Fatal Injuries: An Overview of Injuries on Racial-Minority Operated Farms in the U.S., 2000. 2003 NIFS Conference, Windsor, Canada.
  5. Gabbard, S., Carroll, D., Baron, S., & Steege, A. (1999). Teens in crop agriculture. Paper prepared for the National Adolescent Farmworker Occupational Health and Safety Advisory Committee, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Labor.
  6. Mehta, K., Gabbard, S. M., Barrat, V., Lewis, M., Carroll, D., & Mines, R. (2000). Findings from the National Agricultural Workers Survey (NAWS) 1997-1998: A Demographic and Employment Profile of United States Farmworkers (Research Report No. 8). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Labor. Available at http://www.dol.gov/asp/programs/agworker/report_8.pdf.
  7. Rivara, F. (1997). Fatal and non-fatal farm injuries to children and adolescents in the United States, 1990-3. Injury Prevention, 3(3), 190-194.
  8. Castillo, D., Adekoya, N., & Myers, J. (1999). Fatal work-related injuries in the agricultural production and services sectors among youth in the United States, 1992-96. Journal of Agromedicine, 6(3), 27-41.
  9. Centers for Disease Control (1998). Youth agricultural work-related injuries treated in emergency departments-United States October 1995-September 1997. Morbidity Mortality Weekly Report, 47(35), 733-737. Available at http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00054662.htm.
  10. Adekoya, N., & Pratt, S. G. (2001). Fatal Unintentional Farm Injuries Among Persons Less Than 20 Years of Age: Geographic Profiles (DHHS/NIOSH Publication No. 2001-131). Cincinnati, OH: National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Available at http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/childag/docs/2001131.html.
  11. Myers, J. (1998). Injuries Among Farm Workers in the United States, 1994 (DHHS/NIOSH Publication No. 98-153). Cincinnati, OH: National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
  12. Hendricks, K. J., & Adekoya, N. (2001). Non-fatal animal related injuries to youth occurring on farms in the United States, 1998. Injury Prevention, 7, 307-311.
  13. Gadomski, A.M., Burdick, P., Ackerman, S., Jenkins, P. (2003). Preschoolers working on the Farm: Tasks, Hours and Injury Rates. Pediatric Academic Societies' Annual Meeting, Seattle, WA.
 April, 2004

For more information, contact the National Children's Center 
phone 888-924-7233  
fax: 715-389-4996
email: nccrahs@mfldclin.edu

Agricultural Safety and Children professional resource packet  pages:   

Ag Safety Folder
Fact Sheet Fact Sheet - Agricultural Safety and Children
Ag Safety Resources Agricultural Safety and Children Resources
Ag Injury Prevention Strategies Agricultural Injury Prevention Strategies
Public Policy Relating to Childhood Ag Labor Public Policy Relating to Childhood Agriculture Labor
Ag Safety Web Sites Agricultural Safety and Children: Selected Web Sites
Ag Health and Safety Videos Agricultural Health and Safety Videos
Health & Safety Curricula Health & Safety Curricula Available to Rural Communities
State MCH Injury Prevention Contacts State MCH Injury Prevention and Extension Safety Specialist Contacts
   
PDF Forms
    
Fact Sheet Fact Sheet - Agricultural Safety and Children
Fact Sheet Agricultural Safety and Children Resources
Fact Sheet Program Summary - Agricultural Safety and Children
Fact Sheet What Child Safety Advocates Can Do
Fact Sheet Public Policy Relating to Childhood Agriculture Labor
Fact Sheet Farm Safety Fact Sheet
Fact Sheet Agricultural Safety and Children: Selected Web Sites
Fact Sheet Agricultural Health and Safety Videos
Fact Sheet Agricultural Safety and Children Evaluation Form
Fact Sheet State MCH Injury Prevention and Extension Safety Specialist Contacts
Fact Sheet Helping kids do the job safely

All forms are in Adobe's Portable Document Format. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader 4.0 or higher to view these documents. If you don't have Adobe Acrobat Reader you will need to download the program from Adobe's web site.

          

Once you have Adobe Acrobat 4.0 or higher, you're then ready to download and print the application.

(updated: 7/24/02)

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