Recipient Organization
UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
G022 MCCARTY HALL
GAINESVILLE,FL 32611
Performing Department
Agricultural and Biological Engineering
Non Technical Summary
This project is to enhance understanding of the agricultural, forestry, fishing related injuries and fatalities and to explore using hazard controls to prevent injuries and fatalities by building an interdisciplinary program in worker safety and health in agriculture, forestry, and fisheries systems, technology and equipment assessment for safety and health hazards mitigation, and safety of existing and newly developed mechanized systems and operations.
Animal Health Component
30%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
30%
Applied
30%
Developmental
40%
Goals / Objectives
The Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing, and Hunting (AgFF) sector comprises establishments primarily engaged in growing crops, raising animals, harvesting timber, and harvesting fish and other animals from a farm, ranch, or natural habitat. The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) uses numbers as a coding mechanism to distinguish business sectors. The AgFF industry comprises five primary subsectors: (1) NAICS 111: Crop production; (2) NAICS 112: Animal production and aquaculture; (3) NAICS 113: Forestry and logging; (4) NAICS 114: Fishing, hunting, and trapping; and (5) NAICS 115: Support activities for agriculture and forestry. The work activities of subsectors NAICS 111, NAICS 112, and NAICS 115 are commonly referred to as farming, agricultural production, or production agriculture (Murphy, 1992).The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes the annual Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI) to report fatal work injuries from across the U.S. The CFOI is a federal-state cooperative program that has been implemented in all 50 states and the District of Columbia since 1992. CFOI data are based on multiple data sources, such as death certificates, state workers' compensation reports, news media, and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) reports to identify work-related fatal injuries (BLS, 2020c). The CFOI includes data on work-related fatalities resulting from both injuries and illness occurring in agricultural establishments with one or more employees, as well as those involving self-employed farmers and their family members (Runyan, 1993). The 2018 CFOI data suggest that the AgFF sector was the most hazardous industry in the U.S., with a work-related fatality rate of 23.4 per 100,000 full-time equivalents (FTEs) (BLS, 2014a). This was almost 7 times the all-industry average of 3.5 fatalities per 100,000 workers. For Florida in 2018, the state annual work-related fatality rate for AgFF was even worse, at 19.1 deaths per 100,000 FTEs (BLS, 2020d). Previous studies have examined a wide range of risk factors for injuries related to production agriculture (Sprince et al., 2003). For example, education beyond high school, the use of mechanical power equipment, having large livestock on the farm, taking medication, and wearing a hearing aid were associated with increased risk for agricultural injury (Sprince et al., 2003; McCurdy and Carroll, 2000; Lee et al., 2012).Production agriculture also involves seasonal tasks leading to long working hours that significantly increase injury risk (Lilley, 2012). Based on 2019 U.S. labor force statistics, 39% of persons employed in agriculture and related industries worked 41 hours or more per week, with 19% working 60 hours or more per week (BLS, 2014e). Comparatively, only 25% of persons employed in nonagricultural industries worked 41 hours or more per week, and only 6.5% worked 60 hours or more (BLS, 2014e). Longer working hours in agriculture mean that workers have increased exposure to risk of injury. Workers younger than 19 years and workers older than 65 are at unique risk in production agriculture compared to other industrial sectors. In 2019 in the U.S., 2,425,000 workers were employed in production agriculture. Among all industries, production agriculture had the highest percentage (17%, or 420,000) of workers over the age of 65, which was about 10 percentage points higher than all other industries in the U.S. Youth ages 16 to 19 employed in production agriculture were 3.5% of all persons employed in this sector (85,000 youth). Latino workers count 27.5% of all AgFF workforce (BLS, 2020f). In 2018, Hispanic or Latino workers experienced 961 fatalities which is 18% of all occupational fatalities in the U.S. (BLS, 2020g).Worker fatalities in the U.S. must be reported by the employer to OSHA within eight hours, with certain exceptions. After OSHA completes an investigation into a work-related incident that results in fatalities or three or more injuries, a ''Fatality and Catastrophe Investigation Summary (OSHA 170 form) is completed and then submitted to the Integrated Management Information System (IMIS) (DOL, 2020a and 2020b). The OSHA includes an abstract summarizing the injury incident and information about victim and employer, as well as any violations of OSHA standards and accompanying citations and penalties. OSHA also reports severe work-related injuries, defined as an amputation, in-patient hospitalization, or loss of an eye, but this requirement did not exist prior to January 1, 2015 (DOL, 2020c). The severe injury database provides information describing the incident, the name and address of the establishment where it happened, and industry code based on NAICS. However, data from OSHA has some limitations. First of all, OSHA does not include data from self-employed farmers, family members, or farms with ten or fewer employees. Thus, the data does not reflect any injuries or fatalities from small farming operations.ObjectivesThe overall goal of this research project is to investigate AgFF related injuries and fatalities in Florida and conduct various research on hazard control methods. Specific objectives of this research include:Objective 1: Develop a Florida AgFF injury and fatality databaseObjective 2: Characterize fatal and non-fatal AgFF related incidents in FloridaObjective 3: Develop and disseminate outreach materials, training platforms, and demonstrations to promote agricultural safety and health
Project Methods
MethodsObjective 1: Develop a Florida AgFF injury and fatality databaseA newspaper clipping service will be used to identify potential cases of interest on a monthly basis. These cases are public information. Simultaneously, Death Certificates (DC) for farm and agriculturally-related cases and suspected cases will be requested. The DC is used to compare and/or confirm demographic details such as age of victim, county where incident occurred, location of incident, description of incident, etc.Data will be coded according to the Farm and Agricultural Injury Classification (FAIC) Code and Occupational Injury and Illness Classification System (OIICS). FAIC code separates work-related incidents (4 categories) from non-work incidents (5 categories). OIICS code will be used for nature, body part, source and secondary source and event/exposure categories. Data is then analyzed by demographic groups such as county, month, day of week, primary source of injury, 5-year age groups, and a brief narrative description of the incident. Annual reports will be prepared. At approximate 5-year intervals, the data is collapsed and re-analyzed. Data is presented by the same demographic groups but also includes a few cross-tabulations, such as age groups x FAIC code, and number of incidents per county x number of farms in the county.Objective 2: Characterize the fatal and non-fatal AgFF related incidents in FloridaTo identify the risk factors related to AgFF industry and to compare to the other states to see similarities and differences, multiple secondary data will be used. These data sources are:Death Certificate data from Florida Vital StatisticsOccupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Severe Injury DatabaseOSHA fatality reportsNational Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NESS) by Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).These multiple sources will help us to understand the possible injury sources and contributing event categories for the fatal and non-fatal injuries. We will also be able to see what demographic groups are vulnerable. We will be able to identify unique hazards for FL agriculture, forestry, and hunting industry and compare the results with other states.Objective 3: Develop and disseminate outreach materials, training platforms, and demonstrations to promote agricultural safety and healthBased on the identified hazards and contributing events by using the multiple data sources, it will be possible to identify the priority topics to develop outreach materials. These materials will include fact sheets, infographics, short educational videos as well as flyers and posters.Various agricultural safety and health demonstrations will be developed and presented at various sites throughout Florida. Some of the demonstrations include but not limited toPTO Hazard SimulatorMini-tilt table to demonstrate overturn hazardsATV simulatorHead, eye, and foot safety simulatorHazard huntThe demonstrations will be presented by either project PI or county extension educators. Evaluation feedback forms will be developed to accompany the various demonstrations. Two criteria will guide development of the evaluation feedback forms. First, they will be designed to be as brief as possible, so that respondents could quickly and efficiently complete them. Second, they will be designed for ease of handling and processing, in this instance printed front and back on card stock. The evaluation forms will be used the respondent's reactions to the safety demonstration, using Likert-type response categories ranging from Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree; the respondent's intended use of the information presented in the demonstration; and the respondent's gender and relation to the occupation of AgFF industry. The evaluation forms the will be analyzed by using the statistical software packages.