Agricultural safety and health

Agricultural safety and health is an aspect of occupational safety and health in the agricultural workplace. It specifically addresses the health and safety of farmers, farm workers, and their families.[1]

Risk

The agriculture industry is one of the most dangerous occupations and has led to thousands of deaths due to work-related injuries in the US. In 2011 the fatality rate for farmworkers was 7 times higher than that of all the workers in the private industry, a difference of 24.9 deaths for every 100,000 people as opposed to 3.5 deaths for every 100,000 people in the private industry.[2] The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) estimated that 374 farmers and farmworkers died due to a work-related injury in 2012, tractor overturns being the number one cause death. An average of 113 youth between the ages of 16-19 years die annually from agriculture related injuries (1995-2002). About 167 farmworkers each day are affected by a lost-work-time injury in which 5% of them suffer from permanent damage.[3] Non-fatal injuries that farmworkers are at high risk for include work-related lung problems, hearing loss due to noise, skin diseases, various cancers due to exposure to certain chemicals as well as prolonged exposure to the sun.[2]

Laws and regulation

Unlike other industries that impose labor laws and occupational safety and health regulations in the workplace, agriculture deals with diverse production, large labor force and an array of environmental conditions that makes it difficult to address.[4] The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has approved 28 state plans that are required to include standards and enforcement programs. These standards and programs can have requirements that are different or more strict than OSHA's but they must be in the very least as effective as OSHA's.[5]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "CDC - Agricultural Safety - NIOSH Workplace Safety and Health Topic". www.cdc.gov. Retrieved 2016-05-10.
  2. 1 2 "Safety and Health Topics | Agricultural Operations". www.osha.gov. Retrieved 2016-05-10.
  3. ↑ "CDC - Agricultural Safety - NIOSH Workplace Safety and Health Topic". www.cdc.gov. Retrieved 2016-05-10.
  4. ↑ "Home | Agricultural Safety & Health Program". agsafety.osu.edu. Retrieved 2016-06-07.
  5. ↑ "Safety and Health Topics | Agricultural Operations - Standards". www.osha.gov. Retrieved 2016-05-10.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 7/25/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.