Agricultural work injury data are less available than data for other industries, so an overview of existing data is provided. Agriculture has the highest annual work death rate of all industries, 52 per 100,000 workers, which is five times the combined rate for all industries. Tractor-related injuries are the leading types of fatal injuries; injuries involving agricultural machinery, animals, and trucks are the leading types of non-fatal injuries. Victims of fatal accidents range in age from less than 1 year to over 90. Research needs are discussed, including the need for comprehensive surveillance.
A fundamental problem with classifying agriculturally related injury is that there is neither a rational nor a comprehensive scheme for grouping incidents into categories describing actual exposures encountered on farms and in agricultural work. Current surveillance systems are unable to differentiate between work that is related to farm production and work that is not, and to include all exposed persons in the surveillance. The proposed Farm and Agricultural Injury Classification Code is a step toward overcoming these problems. When it was applied to previously analyzed fatality data, 40% of cases previously identified as farm production work were reclassified into other categories.
BackgroundAgricultural safety and health researchers have used a variety of classification and coding schemes to identify and categorize injury, illness, and disease associated with agricultural hazards. This paper demonstrates how the Farm and Agricultural Injury Classification (FAIC) and Occupational Injury and Illness Classification System (OIICS) coding schemes can be used in tandem for all agricultural injuries.MethodsSpecific cases from the AgInjuryNews.org database were selected to illustrate how the FAIC and OIICS codes can be applied to agricultural injury, and to illustrate limitations that still exist with each coding scheme.ResultsUsing the FAIC and OIICS together provided a clearer picture of an injury incident by combining more explicit occupational and non‐occupational exposures with incident type details in a single table.ConclusionsBoth FAIC and OIICS coding schemes depend on sufficient information being available from injury reports. This paper concluded with suggestions for improving coding of agricultural injury.
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