Safeguarding Youth from Agricultural Injury and Illness: The United States’ Experience

Details

• Personal Author:
  Lee BC ; Salzwedel MA
• Description:
  The United States of America (US) is a country of 50 states with a population of more than 335 million people in 2022. Across the expansive geography, there are approx. 2.1 million farms, with about 890,000 youth younger than 20 years old living and working on family farms, plus another 265,000 non-resident youth hired to work on farms each year. The tremendous diversity in US farm locations, size, commodities, machinery, and livestock is associated with a wide range of work assignments and risk exposures for young people of all ages. Occupational fatality data from the last decade indicate that, across all industries, agriculture had the leading number of work-related deaths for youth. Further, within the agricultural industry, youth between the ages of 10 and 15 suffered the most non-fatal work-related injuries. Although there are no official agricultural injury statistics for youth in the US, a 2014 government analysis estimated an annual 12,000 non-fatal injuries among youth and, of these, about 2/3 involved non-working youth, that is, individuals in the farm environment, but not actively engaged in the work itself. Leading causes of fatal and non-fatal injuries for both working and non-working youth are vehicles (including tractors, all-terrain vehicles, skid steer loaders), machinery, and contact with animals. Agricultural environments also include health risks that are compounded for youth in relation to their physical development stage. Concerns include exposures such as organic dusts, airborne pollutants, pesticides, toxic gases, and cleaning agents. Additionally, there are risks associated with heat-related illness, animal-transmitted infections, noise-induced hearing loss, musculoskeletal strains, sun exposure, and mental health. The US child labor laws and policies are less restrictive than many international standards and are less restrictive for agriculture compared to other occupations. For example, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) allows youth starting at 12 years to be employed for farm work with unlimited hours, providing they have parental permission and continue to attend school. Family farms account for 96% of all US farms, and parents and guardians are exempt from compliance with the FLSA rules when their children are working on their own farms. The Child Labor in Agriculture Rules including a list of Hazardous Occupation Orders restricting certain activities until age 16, have existed for nearly 40 years, and efforts to update them in 2011 were ceased primarily due to strong backlash from groups within the farming community. Another difference in the US compared to many industrialized countries is the limited government support for working parents. Further, the US offers no universal paid parental leave, while childcare access in rural areas is both sparse and expensive. These factors likely contribute to the increased presence of young children in agricultural work settings. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Adolescent Agriculture Family Farmers Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Adolescents Families Farm Workers Policy Young Workers
• ISSN:
  2296-2565
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  OSHA Region 5 ; Wisconsin
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  11
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20067438
• Citation:
  Front Public Health 2023 Jan; 11:1048576
• Contact Point Address:
  Barbara C. Lee, National Children's Center for Rural and Agricultural Health and Safety, Marshfield Clinic Research Institute, Marshfield, WI, United States
• Email:
  lee.barbara@marshfieldresearch.org
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2023
• NORA Priority Area:
  Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing
• Performing Organization:
  Marshfield Clinic Research Foundation
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20080930
• Source Full Name:
  Frontiers in Public Health
• End Date:
  20250929
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:2e7179e4e6b5203a7e0b9c75e2e2dd0e3ac56b3b9639d851da29bfda73ce9491a0dd4325c51e95d8148e07d8f5d439676ae5829c5ce3615ad47387409085463f
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/231455/cdc_231455_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 125.57 KB ]