Injuries and Fatalities to U.S. Farmers and Farm Workers 55 Years and Older

Details

• Personal Author:
  Layne LA ; Marsh, Suzanne M. ; Myers, John R.
• Description:
  Background: previous studies have shown that older farmers and farm workers have been identified at high risk for farm fatalities, most notably involving tractor overturns. Older farmers also incur more severe non-fatal injuries. Methods: data from two national surveillance systems are presented to describe fatal and non-fatal injuries occurring to older farmers 55+ years of age. Tractor-related fatality investigations for older farmers are examined for characteristics of the tractors not available in the injury surveillance systems. Results: older farmers and farm workers averaged 26,573 lost-time injuries annually in 2001 and 2004, with an injury rate of 4.5 injuries/100 workers/year compared to an overall farming injury rate of 4.8 injuries/100 workers/year. Fatality data show that older farmers accounted for over half of all farming deaths between 1992 and 2004 (3,671 of 7,064 deaths), and had a fatality rate of 45.8 deaths/100,000 workers year compared to the overall farming fatality rate of 25.4 deaths/100,000 workers/year Most common mechanisms of fatal injury to older farmers were "tractors" (46%), "trucks" (7%), and "animals" (5%). Conclusions: although older farmers and farm workers are at lower risk of overall injury compared to their younger counterparts, injuries to farmers 55 years and older tend to be much more severe. To effectively minimize the risk faced by older farmers, prevention programs must encourage safe work behaviors and practices and the implementation/installation of appropriate safety devices and equipment. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Age Factors Aging Agriculture Epidemiology Farmers Occupational Health Safety Safety Management Workplace
• Keywords:
  Age-factors Age-groups Agricultural-machinery Agricultural-workers Author Keywords: Production Agriculture Farmer Injuries Older Workers Safety-education Safety-measures Safety-practices Safety-programs Statistical-analysis Surveillance-programs Traumatic-injuries Traumatic Injury Work-operations Workplace-studies

  More +
• ISSN:
  0271-3586
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  OSHA Region 3 ; West Virginia
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DSR - Division of Safety Research
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  185-194
• Volume:
  52
• Issue:
  3
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20035084
• Citation:
  Am J Ind Med 2009 Mar; 52(3):185-194
• Contact Point Address:
  John R. Myers, Division of Safety Research, NIOSH, 1095 Willowdale Road (M/S H-1808), Morgantown, West Virginia 26505
• Email:
  jrmyers@cdc.gov
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2009
• NORA Priority Area:
  Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Source Full Name:
  American Journal of Industrial Medicine
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:99630a9e42b4ba29c27d12efa6577ab06d9231e5645db37adc215c3c3daca2657bb5369e137c7958086f672b96bb28f8e4e8763d04f6f89d3f70a05a7953bdce
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/187054/cdc_187054_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 179.02 KB ]