Children and Agriculture: Opportunities for Safety and Health
A National Action Plan
Introduction
This report is about children, many of whom will enjoy the benefits of visiting or
living on one of the two million farms across the United States. This report is also about
the estimated 100,000 children each year who suffer a preventable injury associated with
production agriculture. How do we safeguard their future? Across our nation, we are
witnessing a rapid industrialization process in production agriculture. The 1992 Census of
Agriculture reports a significant shift in patterns of farm ownership, size, and
production (1). While some agricultural settings undergo rapid changes influenced by
factors such as the global economy and new technologies, other settings will maintain
traditional farm practices. Regardless of the geographic region or type of agricultural
enterprise, our top priority must be to ensure that children are not the forgotten victims
of preventable injuries.
Agriculture has been ranked by several sources as having one of the highest
occupational death rates in the United States (24). It is one of the few
occupational settings where children may actively participate in work typically performed
by adults. Previous efforts to minimize the toll of agricultural injuries have had limited
success. We must develop, implement, and evaluate strategies that incorporate education,
engineering, and public policy, if we hope to make a significant impact on childhood
agricultural injury prevention (5). These strategies should be guided by the principle
that all children, regardless of their parents ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and
relationship to farm ownership, deserve equal protection from agricultural injuries.
Children at Risk
In 1991, there were 923,000 children under 15 years of age and 346,000 children
1519 years of age residing on United States farms and ranches (6). Another 800,000
children lived in households of hired farm workers and may work on farms with their
parents (7). Additionally, many children, whose parents are not farmers or farm workers,
will visit and work on farms. Committee recommendations were designed to protect these
nearly two million children regardless of their parents relationship to the farm.
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Status of Problem
Children experience fatal and nonfatal unintentional injuries associated with
production agriculture in the United States. While children account for about 20 percent
of all farm fatalities, studies have reported that they comprise a higher proportion of
the total number of nonfatal farm injuries (89). An estimated 27,000 children under
the age of 20 years who live on farms and ranches are injured each year (10). This figure
does not include children who visit or work on nonfamily farms. The total injury
toll has been estimated at greater than 100,000 annually (11).
The primary agents of fatal and nonfatal injuries to children on farms include
tractors, farm machinery, livestock, building structures, and falls (8,9,12,13). Children
are also exposed to many of the same environmental hazards as those experienced by adult
workers, including pesticides, volatile organic compounds (fuel), noxious gases, airborne
irritants, noise, vibration, zoonoses, and stress. Only about 5 percent of farms in this
country are covered by safety regulations of the Occupational Safety and Health Act
(OSHA). On the remaining 95 percent of farms, the owner/operator is responsible for
assessing acceptable levels of risk for adults and children on that farm. Unfortunately,
little scientific evidence is available to determine acceptable levels of hazardous
exposure to children. Therefore, neither OSHA standards nor farm operators are prepared to
provide children the same level of protection from occupational hazards in production
agriculture as they receive in other occupations.
Purpose
National Committee for Childhood Agricultural Injury Prevention is a public and private
sector initiative. Committee members strived to generate specific, targeted
recommendations for research, education, policy, and evaluation, with the goal of reducing
unintentional agricultural injuries to children younger than 18 years. These
recommendations were based upon epidemiologic evidence of the current injury problem, as
well as recommendations disseminated through several reports, including: Healthy People
2000: National Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Objectives (14); Injury Control in
the 1990s: A National Plan for Action (15); Childhood Agricultural Injury Prevention:
Issues and Interventions from Multiple Perspectives (16); Agriculture at Risk: A Report to
the Nation (17); and Child Labor in the 90s, How Far Have We Come? (18).
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Methods
The complexity of the problem of childhood agricultural injuries warranted an
interdisciplinary approach as well as a multiphased process. Over a 16-month period, the
42 members of the National Committee for Childhood Agricultural Injury Prevention reviewed
relevant recommendations from previous reports, developed new recommendations based on
current injury data and other scientific evidence, and refined and prioritized
recommendations to be clearly understood and acted upon by relevant individuals and
agencies. The method used to generate consensus on recommendations involved: 1)
teleconference meetings; 2) individual reviews of draft documents; 3) synthesis of
reviewers comments; 4) refinement of recommendations through six categorical working
groups; and 5) formal committee meetings. Thirteen prominent farm organizations were
personally visited and another 14 were contacted by telephone by representatives of the
committee. Farm organizations and members of other groups were encouraged to review
proposed recommendations and provide feedback regarding their merits and problems. More
than 150 copies of proposed recommendations were disseminated among their members. This
feedback served as the basis for content and priority setting of the final report.
In order to move committee recommendations beyond the status of words without
actions, committee members have joined forces with many individuals and agencies.
Together, they have made a commitment to ensure this report is received and
understood by parents, agricultural businesses, educators, farm and ranch operators,
farm organizations, farm workers, health care providers, media, policy makers,
researchers, engineers, youth groups, community groups, and others who share
responsibility for actively protecting children from agricultural injuries.
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