Health, Work, and Safety of Farmers Ages 50 and Older

Farmer exposure to organic solvents during the maintenance and repair of farm machinery: A pilot study

“…In order to evaluate farmers' exposure to organic solvents during their farming activities and to assess the risk of potential health outcomes, we conducted this pilot study. Consistent with other published studies [Coble et al, 2002[Coble et al, , 2003Wu et al, 2003;Amshoff and Reed, 2005], we found that farm machinery maintenance and repair was a primary task performed by Kentucky farmers. Many farmers used solvent-containing products as primary agents for the maintenance and repair of their farm machinery which allowed them to have direct contact with organic solvents.…”

“…Exposure to organic solvents by farmers during the maintenance and/or repair of farm machinery may be particularly important to the overall exposure of farmers to chemicals since the maintenance and repair of farm machinery are primary tasks performed by farmers [Wu et al, 2003;Amshoff and Reed, 2005]. Personal protective equipment (PPE) is not routinely used during these activities to prevent exposure to solvents and other agricultural hazards [Schenker et al, 2002], which further increases the risk of exposure.…”

“…The repair and maintenance of farm machinery is a common task performed frequently on the farm and was a primary task performed by 77% of surveyed farmers aged 50 and older in Kentucky and South Carolina [Amshoff and Reed, 2005]. Farm machinery maintenance and repair was performed more often than other typical farm tasks such as tilling ground and feeding animals.…”

Interventions to reduce injuries among older workers in agriculture: A review of evaluated intervention projects

“…The criterion "evaluated" was particularly problematic. Many studies described development of models for interventions or were study protocols of ongoing interventions and did not describe the outcome or results of an intervention, which was the topic of interest in this review [42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58]. Other reasons for exclusion were that the intervention did not include a description of the participants' age, or excluded older workers [42;54;59-61], or that it did not describe agricultural workers [49-51;53-55;61;66].…”

Respiratory Symptom Reporting Error in Occupational Surveillance of Older Farmers

“…2,3 Farmers older than 55 comprise the majority of farm operators in the United States; however, they report lower rates of acute and chronic disability 4 than other US workers, and often continue working long past common retirement age through the eighth or even ninetieth decade of life. 5 The healthy worker effect is often cited in explaining the mid-career continuation of work in certain types of farming associated with respiratory hazards 6 ; however, as self-selected "healthy worker" farmers age and continue farming, durability may not reflect actual health status. 5,7 The prevalence of respiratory disease, particularly obstructive disease, in older adults in the general population is thought to be consistently underestimated by patient symptom self-report data.…”