Journal of Agricultural Safety and Health最新文献

A warming climate has been linked to an increase in the frequency and severity of extreme weather events, including heat and cold waves, extreme precipitation, and wildfires. This increase in extreme weather results in increased risks to the health and safety of farmworkers.

This study describes tasks that middle school and high school youth, ages 13 to 18 years, completed during the 2015-2016 academic year as part of their supervised agricultural experience (SAE). The overarching goal was to collect information useful in directing classroom instruction to better prepare youth prior to engaging in agricultural tasks identified as hazardous by the U.S. Department of Labor. Using a list of eleven tasks currently identified as hazardous and 17 tasks proposed as hazardous, teachers were asked how many of their students engaged in each of the 28 tasks as part of their SAE. The 320 teachers from four U.S. geographic regions reported that students most frequently completed SAEs in the areas of livestock production (f = 6746, 26.6%), agricultural mechanics (f = 2695, 10.6%), home and/or community development (f = 2296, 9.0%), and crop production (f = 2250, 8.9%). Students often engaged in tasks associated with ATV/UTV operation (f = 7618, 10.3%), tractor operation (f = 5554, 7.5%), and assisting tractor operation (f = 5,081, 6.9%) as part of their SAE. All of these tasks are well documented in the literature as contributing to injuries and fatalities of both youth and adults.

Annually, tractor accidents are estimated to account for more than 100 deaths in South Korea. Periodic accident surveys have served as an essential means for the National Institute of Agricultural Sciences (NAS) to develop strategies to prevent tractor accidents. In this study, hazards leading to accidents were identified, and their risks were assessed based on survey results to establish a more effective accident prevention strategy. Risk assessment for hazards proceeded as follows: hazard identification, frequency estimation, number of equivalent fatalities (NEF) estimation, and finally risk evaluation. Hazards were identified by analyzing 588 accident cases from NAS surveys and performing an expert review of the analysis results by implementing a Delphi survey. The frequency and NEF of each hazard were estimated by multiplying its probabilities and the statistical results of the NAS surveys. Each hazard was plotted in a frequency-NEF (FN) diagram and evaluated according to its position. Fifty-four hazards were identified, and their frequencies and NEF values were estimated. The risk evaluation results, based on the FN diagram, revealed that no hazard was located in the "unacceptable" area, and two hazards (carelessness and not looking ahead carefully) were in the "as low as reasonably practicable" area. Thus, it is critical to mitigate the effects of these two hazards. With the risk assessment method used in this study, personnel who are engaged in the prevention of tractor accidents, such as policymakers, extension specialists, and researchers, can quantitatively predict how many cases or fatalities can be reduced by eliminating a certain hazard.

Several studies have shown that males are at greater risk of agricultural injuries than females. We investigated if gender division of farm work helps explain this risk difference in the self-employed Finnish farming population. We used insurance claims data and postal survey data charting the relative division of farm work between male and female farmers. Over the five-year study period (2009 to 2013), the average number of farmers was 75,893 (67% males and 33% females). A total of 22,648 occupational injuries (77% males and 23% females) were compensated during that time. Males had significantly higher rates of any, minor, serious, and recurrent injuries compared to females. Altogether, 319 usable responses were received in the postal survey (13% response rate). Both farm work time and occupational injuries differed by gender. Crop production, construction, forestry, and machinery contracting work were male-dominated, whereas females took the main responsibility for domestic and caretaking work. On livestock farms, animal husbandry was divided quite evenly between males and females (56% and 44% contributions, respectively). Animal husbandry-related injuries were distributed similarly (58% males and 42% females), but all other types of injuries occurred mostly to males. These results suggest that the risk of injuries is also nearly equal, given equal work time. Therefore, gender is an indicator of different work exposures in farming, rather than a risk factor for injury. Better understanding of the division of work and the corresponding risk of injuries can help in the design of interventions for males and females in agriculture.

Safety professionals should speak up when secondary school teachers and FFA advisors consider fabricating and installing low-cost rollover protective structures (ROPS) as service learning projects for ag education students or as a service to the farm community. These projects are often motivated by the desire to address the continued occurrence of tractor rollovers, which are the most frequent cause of farm-related fatalities (NIOSH, 2018). These projects have also been made feasible by the availability of online plans for ROPS fabrication, including plans from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) that are designed for specific makes and models of tractors. Because of the large number of older tractors that were not originally equipped with ROPS, and the cost and lack of easily accessible ROPS retrofits, fabricating a structure to provide operator protection in the event of an overturn can be attractive as a service learning project. In addition, several of the NIOSH Agricultural Injury Prevention Centers have promoted these projects as a means of reducing the frequency of rollover-related injuries. However, in light of the liability risk involved, such projects should be weighed carefully. Fabricating a ROPS is not the same as building a chicken house, fabricating a welding table, or welding together a hay feeder. ROPS are life-saving devices that must meet specific design and installation standards that exceed the expertise available in most secondary school ag education shops, and even most local machine shops. In fact, "ROPS" is a technical term defined by OSHA standards and the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE). It does not apply-nor should it be applied-to untested, homemade structures that are installed on tractors with the intent of protecting the operator.

The purpose of this study was to assess and compare 2015-2017 Pennsylvania agricultural fatal injury data and methods from two separate sources: the Pennsylvania Farm Fatality (PA-FF) dataset and the national AgInjuryNews (AIN) dataset. Between January 1, 2015, and December 31, 2017, a total of 104 agricultural fatalities were identified in Pennsylvania across both systems. Differences between the two systems included coding, such as victim age and demographics, as well as inclusion criteria, such as the time between the incident and victim death. Of the 104 agricultural fatalities, 73% were identified through the PA-FF dataset, and 53% were identified through the AIN dataset. AIN included a higher proportion of female victims and roadway incidents, whereas PA-FF included a significantly higher proportion of the identified Anabaptist cases (χ2 = 22.329, df = 2, p < 0.001). Although PA-FF may have an advantage by including death certificates, this study revealed that PA-FF alone missed mortality data and certain risk factors, such as roadway fatalities related to farm equipment. When comparing two datasets, the inclusion criteria should be considered. Supplemental surveillance programs such as these would benefit from a periodic review between two or more datasets to ensure that agricultural fatalities are captured more accurately.

Potential inhalation exposure of agricultural workers and bystanders to aerosolized particles emitted by typical agricultural spray nozzles is influenced by the particle size distribution (PSD) of the spray. However, inhalation risk assessments do not currently factor in the human-relevant PSD that may be inhaled during pesticide handling activities. This study was conducted to characterize the PSD of aerosols collected with OSHA Versatile Sampler (OVS) tubes, which are monitoring devices commonly used for inhalation risk assessment in worker exposure studies. An Oxford Lasers N60V particle size analyzer was used for characterizing the spray PSD emitted from various agricultural nozzles. Side-by-side air sampling with OVS tubes and Respicon TM particle samplers was conducted to characterize the size distribution of aerosols collected on the OVS tubes during spraying of a diluted chlorothalonil formulation. Based on this comparison, OVS tubes captured the inhalable fraction (mass median diameter (D50) = 100 μm), with approximately 40% of the total inhalation concentration contributing to systemic exposure (D50 = 10 μm) regardless of nozzle spray quality. In addition, nozzles with fine and medium spray produced higher airborne concentrations compared to nozzles with coarse spray. Thus, the use of modern low-drift nozzles (e.g., air-induction nozzles) that emit larger spray droplets can substantially reduce the airborne concentration levels within inhalable particle size fractions. While the concentrations within these airway fractions (e.g., respirable, thoracic, inhalable) increased from extremely coarse to very fine spray nozzles, the relative proportion of each fraction within the total inhalable concentration remained constant regardless of spray quality or nozzle type. Such information on the PSD of pesticide applications can be used to refine inhalation risk assessments for agricultural workers and bystanders.

One contributor to agriculture's high death rate is confined space fatalities caused by entrapment in grain. Over 1,000 grain-related fatalities have been documented by researchers in 43 states, and states with the largest grain storage capacities have been shown to experience a proportionally larger number of suffocation fatalities. Several researchers have measured extraction forces in specific conditions, but a reference standard is needed for estimating the extraction forces for grain suffocation victims in common conditions. A prediction model for estimating extraction forces was developed using the principle of boundary shear, an approximation of human surface area, and a commonly accepted equation for lateral granular pressure. This research reintroduces the prediction model for extraction forces and explores several sensitivity analyses of the input variables. It also updates the anthropometric data used in the model calculations and produces extraction force estimates for adult male victims with different body shapes submerged below the grain surface. Results from the prediction model are presented graphically for common input variables, various entrapment depths, and adult male body shapes.

. Migrant seasonal workers manually harvest apples throughout the U.S. using ladders and buckets due to the care required for prevention of bruises and other physical damage. The motions associated with hand harvest have potential to cause musculoskeletal disorders of the neck, shoulder, and back/trunk. A prototype harvest platform was developed, aimed at alleviating occupational injuries and increasing harvest productivity by replacing ladders for reaching high apples. This study evaluated the activities of three harvest methods, i.e., conventional harvest (using ladders and buckets), harvest platform (for high apples only), and combined method (conventional harvest for low and middle apples and harvest platform for high apples) using the Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA) method performed by trained researchers. Postures/activities with RULA grand scores > 5 were categorized as awkward (causing occupational injuries); otherwise, they were considered comfortable (not leading to health issues). Experimental results demonstrated that awkward activities in conventional harvest were mainly related to the use of ladders. Activities with the harvest platform were comfortable due to the elimination of ladders and buckets. The combined method significantly decreased the workers' time spent in awkward postures (from 64% with conventional harvest to 30% with the combined method) by eliminating awkward activities and increased the overall harvest productivity by approximately 40%. Apple growers and workers are therefore suggested to use the combined method to replace conventional harvest.