Estimating the Number of Agricultural Fatal Injuries Prevented by Agricultural Engineering Developments in the United States

Salah F Issa,Steven Thomson,Kiana Patrick,Bradley Rein

doi:10.3390/safety5040063

Salah F Issa, Steven Thomson + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/safety5040063

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Journal: Safety	Publication Date: Sep 25, 2019
Citations: 4	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: National Institute of Food and Agriculture

Abstract

Agriculture has been consistently marked as one of the deadliest industries by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). While this statistic is widely used in promoting agricultural safety and health, it does not paint a complete picture on the current status of agricultural safety and the advances that have been made in the last century. For example, even with a stagnant rate of injury, the BLS has reported that fatal incidents decreased from a high of 855 incidents in 1993 to a low of 500 incidents in 2013. The purpose of this study was to analyze the impact that agricultural engineering developments had on reducing fatal injuries. Agricultural engineering developments are defined as any agricultural improvement that results in a direct reduction in the amount of labor needed. This study uses existing federal agricultural statistical, injury and demographic data to calculate the impact that engineering, in contrast to yield improvements and safety enhancements, contributed to a reduction in the number of fatal incidents. The study found that engineering developments could have contributed to the reduction in the number of fatal injuries by about 170 incidents from 1992 to 2015. This represents 63% of the total reduction in the number of fatal injuries. In conclusion, agricultural engineering developments play a substantial role in reducing the number of fatal incidents by removing and reducing labor exposure to hazardous environments.

Highlights

Agriculture is considered to be one of the most dangerous industries in the United States (US) [1,2].In addition, the overall fatal injury rate reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has remained fairly constant over the last thirty years [3,4] in spite of tremendous efforts in safety training [5,6,7] and safety improvements to agricultural equipment [8,9,10]
The low R2 for INJ values over time highlight the variability in year-to-year injury rates
It is possible to measure the role that engineering developments, yield improvements and safety enhancements play in reducing overall fatal injury levels

Summary

Introduction

Agriculture is considered to be one of the most dangerous industries in the United States (US) [1,2].In addition, the overall fatal injury rate reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has remained fairly constant over the last thirty years [3,4] in spite of tremendous efforts in safety training [5,6,7] and safety improvements to agricultural equipment [8,9,10]. Agriculture is considered to be one of the most dangerous industries in the United States (US) [1,2]. Due to the massive transformation that has occurred in agriculture [11,12], injury rates fail to capture a complete picture regarding the agricultural safety landscape. This can be most clearly seen when reviewing the number of fatal injuries over time that have occurred each year from 1992 to the present. From 1992 to 1994, an average of 834 deaths each year was reported in the agricultural industry.

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Conclusion