Farm Injury Surveillance in Two California Counties—General Findings

Abstract

Because of the known high risk for occupational injuries among agriculturalworkers, and the unique composition of the California agricultural industry, a twocountysurveillance system was developed for the detection of farm-relatedoccupational injuries. The goals of this project include the active surveillance of farmrelatedwork injuries using multiple ascertainment sources, selective field investigationsof identified cases and associated health education and outreach. From October 1991through September 1996, a network of medical care providers and local agencies inMonterey and Fresno Counties provided case reports for the farm injury surveillancesystem. During the five-year operation of the surveillance system, 5,164 cases wereidentified. Of these injury cases, 85% were male and 85% were of Hispanic origin.There were approximately twice as many cases in Fresno as in Monterey County whichis consistent with the different populations of each region. There were 134 (3%) fatalinjuries and 319 (6%) hospitalizations. The two leading causes of the fatalities weremotor-vehicle accidents involving tractors and agricultural machine/tractor episodes.Overexertion (14%) and falls (11%) were the most prevalent type of injury event.Despite the preliminary nature of this analysis, the current surveillance project hasprovided important information about the nature of farmworker injuries in these twocounties which can be used in injury intervention activities.