Young workers at risk when working in agricultural production

• Published in: American journal of industrial medicine Vol. 36; no. S1; pp. 31 - 33
• Main Authors: Hard, David, Myers, John, Snyder, Karl, Casini, Virgil, Morton, Linda, Cianfrocco, Rosemary, Fields, Judy
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.09.1999
• Subjects: Accidents, Occupational - mortality; Adolescent; Adult; Age Factors; Agricultural Workers' Diseases - etiology; Agricultural Workers' Diseases - mortality; agriculture; Cause of Death; farming; fatalities; Female; Humans; Male; occupational health and safety; Population Surveillance; Risk Factors; United States - epidemiology; work environment; Wounds and Injuries - etiology; Wounds and Injuries - mortality; youth; United States
• ISSN: 0271-3586; 1097-0274
• DOI: 10.1002/(SICI)1097-0274(199909)36:1+<31::AID-AJIM12>3.0.CO;2-H

Workers in the agriculture industry have consistently been identified as being at high risk of death and injury [NIOSH, 1993; Runyan, 1993; NSC, 1997; Ruser, 1998]. Production agriculture, a segment of the agriculture industry, is the sector which commonly represents farming. Production agriculture has been shown to have higher rates of fatalities than the agriculture industry as a whole [Myers and Hard, 1995; U.S. DOL/BLS, 1996]. Studies have shown young workers in agriculture to incur more serious injuries and a greater proportion of injury than the general young worker population [Hoskins et al., 1988; Heyer et al., 1992; Belville et al., 1993; Castillo et al., 1994; Rivara, 1997]. Reasons for the higher rates have been suggested as being inexperienced in the job/work method, a more hazardous work environment, and risk taking behavior due to a feeling of invincibility by young workers [Pollock and Landrigan, 1990; Murphy, 1992; Cotten, 1997; Pratt and Hard, 1997]. The purpose of this study was to determine the fatality rate for young workers in the agriculture production industry and identify the associated mechanisms of injury leading to death.