Identifying Work-related Fatalities in the Agricultural Production Sector Using Two National Occupational Fatality Surveillance Systems, 1990-1995

Abstract

Workers in the agriculture industry have consistently been identified as being athigh risk for death and injury. Production agriculture, the segment of the agricultureindustry that represents farming, has been shown to have higher rates of fatalities thanthe agriculture industry as a whole. The purpose of the manuscript was to provide adescriptive analysis of agricultural production fatalities for the years 1990 through1995. Two national occupational fatality data sources were used to calculate agriculturalproduction fatality rates: the National Traumatic Occupational Fatalities (NTOF) andthe Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI). Employment estimates forcalculating fatality rates came from the Current Population Survey (CPS). Themajority of agricultural production worker decedents were white male farmers. Theleading sources of injury were farm tractors, followed by trucks and harvestingequipment. Older agricultural workers (65+ years of age) were at high risk for death,with the most likely fatal event being the overturning of a tractor in a non-highwayenvironment. Black workers in the agricultural production industry, and the occupationof black farmers in particular, were identified as having high fatal injury rates by race.Young Hispanic workers also exhibited a high fatality rate. Farm tractors were a leadingsource of injury resulting in death for males and females; however, there were genderdifferences in other types of fatalities. Females, while accounting for a small percentageof the total fatalities in agriculture production, had a higher proportion of deaths due toanimals than did males, and also had a higher proportion of deaths due to being caughtin running equipment than males. The two national occupational fatality surveillancesystems, while showing differences in overall numbers, generally identified similarpatterns of death for agricultural production workers. Finally, no clear downward trendfor agricultural production fatalities was found, which is contrary to trends seen in thegeneral worker population over the same time period.