Current health effects of agricultural work: respiratory disease,cancer, reproductive effects,musculoskeletal injuries,and pesticide-related illnesses

Agriculture has experienced major bio-technological advances and economic and socio-cultural disruptions since the publication of "Agriculture at Risk" in 1988. At that time, it was recognized that there were acute needs in the prevention of musculoskeletal syndromes and injuries, agricultural respiratory disease, noise-induced hearing loss, pesticide-related illnesses, and concerns regarding the excesses of cancers noted in epidemiological studies of farmers. In this article, we discuss the progress made in identification of new respiratory syndromes related to confined animal feeding operations, pesticide-related illnesses, cancers implicating agricultural exposures, and ergonomics in agriculture. The focus is on the current state of knowledge in these areas, the author's recommendations for further improvement in research techniques, and the potential application of this information to improve human health in production agriculture nationwide.     

Tractor risk abatement and control as a coherent strategy

The agricultural tractor was the principal source of fatal injury on American farms for the latter part of the 20th century, and they maintain that distinction today. Much has been learned about the toll of these fatalities and how to prevent them over the last ten years, yet public policy has generally been unsuccessful in reducing this toll. A policy conference entitled Tractor Risk Abatement and Control convened in 1997 to develop recommendations to reduce this death toll. Several stakeholders at the conference agreed on 25 action items, which if implemented would reduce the number of tractor-related deaths by more than 2,000 by the year 2015. These recommendations relate to tractor overturns, runovers, and traffic collisions as well as youth operators. This article addresses the completeness of a strategy for preventing tractor-related injuries for each of these four areas based upon an evaluation model derived from the Theory of Planned Behavior and an antecedent model. The ultimate result of this model is to influence an individual's intention to act to prevent injury. The set of recommendations was found to provide a coherent strategy. In addition, implementing the strategy at an organizational level is discussed.     

Risk perceptions, barriers, and motivators to tractor ROPS retrofitting in the New York state farm community

The prevalence of tractor rollovers among agricultural workers has made the retrofitting of tractors with rollover protective structures (ROPS) and seat belts a public health priority for agricultural health and safety specialists. To address this concern, the New York Center for Agricultural Medicine and Health (NYCAMH) developed a seven-question survey, designed to assess perceptions of risk as well as potential motivators and barriers to retrofitting. Data from 465 phone surveys were gathered from New York State farmers representing various commodities and farm sizes. Analysis of responses to three qualitative questions contained in the survey indicated that most farmers in New York understand the importance of ROPS but lack the proper motivation to consider retrofitting. It appears that more convenient safety strategies, cost, and age of the tractor compete with a farmer's initiative to retrofit. In addition, survey responses illustrate that although many farmers believe ROPS are important in a general sense, many believe that this safety measure is not necessary for them in particular. Frequent motivators to retrofitting are concerns about safety, although the authors conclude that a more thorough analysis of these "general safety concerns" in qualitative interviews is important.     

Evaluation of the Farm and Agricultural Injury Classification Code and follow-up questionnaire

The Farm and Agricultural Injury Classification (FAIC) code was developed specifically to identify and classify all agricultural injuries of interest to agricultural safety and health professionals. The FAIC code overcomes fundamental problems of classifying agricultural-related injuries by grouping incidents into categories describing actual exposures encountered on farms and in agricultural work. The successful application of the FAIC code depends largely on a researcher's ability to obtain appropriate information to correctly use the code. The purpose of this research project was to: (1) compare data obtained through a newly developed FAIC follow-up questionnaire (FQ) with data from the Penn State Agricultural Injury Database (AID); and (2) test FAIC Code utility, reliability, and construct validity with agricultural safety and health professionals. The FQ improved classification of 57% of cases in the Penn State AID. A majority of agricultural health and safety professionals understood and used the FAIC coding system, without training, to code an average of 75% of the test cases the same as the researcher. A large majority of the professionals that participated in this study judged the FAIC code and the accompanying materials to be very useful.     

Agricultural employers' hiring and safety practices for adolescent workers

The goal of the "Safety Training for Employers and Supervisors of Adolescent Farmworkers" initiative is to improve the occupational health and safety knowledge and practices of agricultural employers and supervisors responsible for employees, ages 14 to 17 years. Surveys were sent to members of the National Council of Agricultural Employers and the Washington Growers League to measure attitudes regarding adolescent employees, current hiring and training practices, and future intentions. More than half of the respondents hire adolescents. Two-thirds were male, nearly three-quarters of the respondents had college or post-graduate degrees, and more than half were 50 years or older. The majority of respondents had positive perceptions of adolescents in terms of dependability, helpfulness, and work ethic. Among those who currently hire young workers, the most common reasons were to provide a job for children of friends and family and because they can work part-time to fill a labor demand. Among those not hiring adolescents, the most common reason was concern about child labor regulations and associated tasks (e.g., paperwork, monitoring hours). Respondents use a variety of safety training resources, especially posters and safety meetings. For the future, they expect to need more handout materials and training videos. Study results provide insights into barriers to the employment of young workers and suggest methods by which agricultural safety specialists can best assist those employers and producers who are willing to hire adolescents into agricultural work settings.     

研究生培养方向的思考与探索

目前国家为适应全球信息化的发展,在农业领域提出了“数字农业”的建设目标,不断加大农业信息技术研究的投资力度。农业院校以此为契机,积极拓展其学科研究领域,在科研与教学方面均向该领域渗透,特别是在研究生培养方面更应向“数字农业”方向延伸发展。该文结合近年来沈阳农业大学农业电气化与自动化学科研究生培养工作实践,着重分析了该学科研究生培养方向如何与“数字农业”建设这一目标保持协调发展的问题,探讨了目前农业院校农业电气化与自动化学科研究生培养设立的整体框架,并对各个研究方向的具体内容做出了阐述,提出了分层次、一体化的研究生培养思路。     

Drivers of adoption of safety innovations on Australian cotton farms

The Australian cotton industry has been a leader in the adoption of farm health and safety approaches in the Australian agricultural sector. In order to analyze factors associated with occupational health and safety performance, a review of available information and key stakeholder interviews were conducted A recently defined model for adoption of farm safety, emphasizing individual behavioral, environmental, community, and governmental factors, was used as the framework for the assessment. This hazard-based examination of changes describes improvements that have positively impacted health and safety. Improvements include: reduction in vehicle and on-farm traffic systems, safer irrigation systems, changes in cultivation technology, changes in pesticides and application technology, changes in harvest technology, adoption of gene technology, adoption of occupational health and safety (OHS) management systems, and government regulation. The introduction of genetically modified cotton has directly reduced potential exposure to pesticides, and it has indirectly impacted safety by, for example, reducing traffic flow on farms. This study demonstrates the considerable innovation and positive safety enhancements across the Australian cotton industry with respect to the interaction of management and production systems. These lessons should be used develop effective interventions in other agricultural industries.     

Management of safety and quality and the relationship with employee decisions in country grain elevators

Human factors play an important role in the management of safety and quality in an agricultural work environment. Although employee actions and decisions have been identified as a key component of successful occupational safety programs and quality management programs, little attention has been given to the employees' role in these types of programs. This research explored two safety relationships that have theoretical connections but little previous research: the relationship between safety climate and quality climate, and the relationship of the safety and quality climates between the organizational level and the group level within a workplace. Survey data were collected at three commercial grain handling facilities from 177 employees. Employees also participated in safety and quality decision-making simulations. Significant positive predictions were noted for safety and quality climate. Decision-making predictions are also discussed. This research suggests that organizational safety is an important predictor of group safety. In addition, recognizing the larger role that supervisors play in group workplace behavior, more should be done to increase employee perceptions of group-level involvement in quality climate to promote more quality-oriented decision-making by employees.     

Using the World Wide Web to Educate and Inform the Public About Risk and Agricultural Biotechnology

The University of Nebraska and AgBios, Inc. launched the AgBiosafety website (http://agbiosafety.unl.edu) with the purpose of educating the public about agricultural biotechnology risk and safety issues through science-based content. This article discusses the creation of the website, its components, and data gathered from usage statistics and a web-delivered survey. Also included is a discussion of the results of data gathered and recommendations for future web-based educational efforts in biotechnology safety and risk assessment.     

Proposed performance standards for the Agricultural Hazardous Occupations Order certification training program

The performance standards that accompany Gearing Up for Safety, the agricultural production safety training curriculum for youth, were designed to meet the certification testing requirements of the Agricultural Hazardous Occupations Order (AgHOs) certification training program. The AgHOs requires that certain youth who are older than 13 and younger than 16 years of age complete a prescribed training program before being eligible for employment on farms to perform certain tasks considered hazardous. These training resources will be available for implementation and can be accessed by contacting the second author. To our knowledge, up until this time, few, if any, standardized testing procedures or instruments have had the necessary psychometric evidence to support use of the resulting scores to assess the readiness of youth to meet the basic certification requirements contained in the AgHOs. This article describes the rationale, methods, and key findings from a standard-setting session held to establish minimum passing scores for a proposed testing process. The test will be used as a component of the Gearing Up for Safety certification process for youth workers seeking employment to perform job functions as specified under the AgHOs. Readers may be able to apply this standardized testing process, or similarly accepted processes, to other or future testing and certification projects involving agricultural safety and health.     

Compliance with NAGCAT work practices recommendations for youth cleaning service alleys in stall barns

Unintentional injury is the leading cause of death in the U.S. among persons 1 to 44 years of age. Over one million children and adolescents in the U.S. live, work, and/or play on farms, where injury risk is relatively high compared to other settings. In an attempt to reduce the number of childhood agricultural injuries occurring on farms, the North American Guidelines for Children's Agricultural Tasks (NAGCAT) was developed to assist parents or other caregivers in assigning developmentally appropriate chores to youth exposed to agricultural hazards. The results presented here are from a longitudinal study in which we obtained (self-reported) daily chore, injury, and safety behavior data from children and adolescents. We focused on one NAGCAT chore, cleaning a service alley in a stall barn, in order to estimate the extent of compliance with specific work practice recommendations contained in the NAGCAT. Our results indicated that among the four NAGCAT-recommended safety practices for cleaning service alleys in stall barns (wearing nonskid shoes, leather gloves, a respirator, and eye protection), wearing non-skid shoes was the only safety practice reported with any degree of regularity. Overall, boys were more likely to wear non-skid shoes compared to girls. In addition, older youth were generally more likely to report higher work practice compliance compared to younger youth.     

Utilizing expert panels in agricultural safety and health research

This article reports on the use of expert panels by Purdue University's Agricultural Safety and Health Program staff to address three separate research questions related to: (1) developing strategies for the prevention of flowing grain engulfments, (2) evaluation of commercial lifts used by operators with restricted mobility to gain access to agricultural tractors and equipment, and (3) identifying essential competencies for youth enrolled in federally mandated tractor and machinery certification programs. Advantages and disadvantages associated with the use of expert panels are addressed, and specific examples of outcomes are presented. Recommendations for using expert panels during research projects are also included.     

民以食为天食以净为本-论江苏省农产品清洁生产创新研究

农产品清洁生产是保证食物安全的关键,是现代生产过程中运用的一种新的、创造性的思维方式。它是指通过对农业生产的全程控制或减少污染,生产出合格的卫生食品,以达到环境健康和人类食品安全的目的。江苏省于 2002 年 1 月启动了全省农业清洁生产技术与管理体系的试验示范研究。这项研究历时两年多,在省政府领导及有关职能部门与科研单位的共同配合下,已取得初步进展,积累了不少可值得借鉴的有关农业清洁生产的技术与管理体系的创新经验。本文是此项研究工作经验的综合总结,仅供有关方面参考。     

A qualitative assessment of children's farm safety day camp programs

In order to increase farm safety awareness and teach children good safety habits, farm safety day camp programs have been initiated in many communities. For the most part, the effectiveness of the programs is unknown because few evaluations have been performed. The purpose of this project was to qualitatively assess the overall strengths and weaknesses of farm safety day camp programs and to generate recommendations for future programs. Interviews, a literature search, and observations were used to identify strengths and weaknesses of the farm safety day camp programs. Major strengths of the programs are that: 1) positive attention is given to agriculture and agricultural safety; 2) programs are hands-on, interactive, and fun; 3) children gain knowledge about farm safety; 4) programs bring a community together to work toward a common goal; and 5) children talk to parents about safety. Key weaknesses of farm safety day camp programs are that: 1) there is a lack of parental involvement in many of the programs; 2) it is hard to change patterns of behavior in one day; 3) programs are expensive and time consuming; 4) curricula may include content that is inaccurate or inappropriate for the age of participants; and 5) evaluation is difficult. When done well, farm safety day camp programs can teach children about safety and influence safety practices affecting children on the farm. Recommendations for future farm safety day camp programs are: 1) ensure that child-development principles are applied to all aspects of program activities and curricula; 2) provide session leaders with accurate and relevant content; 3) increase parental involvement; and 4) address safety issues throughout the year.     

Coalitions: partnerships to promote agricultural health and safety

Throughout the 1990s, a variety of partnerships and community-based organizations have been formed with the primary mission to promote agricultural safety and health. These groups are altruistic, creative, energetic, and provide critical perspectives for improving the safety and health of the agricultural workforce at the local, regional, and national levels. These coalitions have been created as a result of philanthropic support, public funding, grassroots interest, and personal experiences with agricultural injuries andfatalities. They are playing important roles in collaborating with researchers and in reaching the individual agricultural communities. They have been instrumental in conducting needs assessments and are critical to the development and implementation of successful surveillance programs and interventions. Outreach and dissemination of research findings and other safety and health information to target audiences are strengths of these diverse coalitions. This article will focus on primarily community-based coalitions, providing an overview of the development, foci, membership activities, and contributions or impact of these groups during the 1990s and the challenges in maintaining and sustaining the coalitions. This information should be useful to those seeking to understand the activities of existing coalitions and identify potential partnerships for future activities.     

A study of the impact and efficacy of health fairs for farmers

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of two regional multi-disciplinary farm health fairs, pairing cardiovascular and agricultural health and safety risk factor assessments and education, in agricultural regions in southern Minnesota in 1999 and 2001. This study explores the rationales and motives cited as having an influence on: (1) work practice and lifestyle adaptations, (2) resistance to such changes, and (3) compliance with health fair recommendations. Evaluation took the form of standardized telephone surveys and callbacks with an open-ended component administered by a parish nurse interviewer and conducted six months following each of the fairs. Participants had received individualized work practice and lifestyle recommendations based upon their medical results and questionnaire responses. Of the 378 total attendees at the two farm health fairs, 272 (72%) participated by filling out on-site questionnaires, and 284 (75%) completed a post-fair interview. Participants who were actively farming totaled 237 (63%) of all participants. A majority of those interviewed on callback (78%) reported either work safety or lifestyle changes, while 47% of those actively farming claimed varying work safety changes as a result of the fair. The conclusions drawn from the follow-up interviews include: (1) the two farm health fairs resulted in a substantial number of participants positively modifying lifestyle and work practices, (2) the stand-alone farm health fairs were effective in attracting farmers, and (3) low-level stressors identified in the participants could be effectively addressed by knowledgeable rural health care resources such as parish nursing.     

Need for an "integrated safety assessment" of GMOs, linking food safety and environmental considerations

Evidence for substantial environmental influences on health and food safety comes from work with environmental health indicators which show that agroenvironmental practices have direct and indirect effects on human health, concluding that "the quality of the environment influences the quality and safety of foods" [Fennema, O. Environ. Health Perspect. 1990, 86, 229-232). In the field of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), Codex principles have been established for the assessment of GM food safety and the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety outlines international principles for an environmental assessment of living modified organisms. Both concepts also contain starting points for an assessment of health/food safety effects of GMOs in cases when the environment is involved in the chain of events that could lead to hazards. The environment can act as a route of unintentional entry of GMOs into the food supply, such as in the case of gene flow via pollen or seeds from GM crops, but the environment can also be involved in changes of GMO-induced agricultural practices with relevance for health/food safety. Examples for this include potential regional changes of pesticide uses and reduction in pesticide poisonings resulting from the use of Bt crops or influences on immune responses via cross-reactivity. Clearly, modern methods of biotechnology in breeding are involved in the reasons behind the rapid reduction of local varieties in agrodiversity, which constitute an identified hazard for food safety and food security. The health/food safety assessment of GM foods in cases when the environment is involved needs to be informed by data from environmental assessment. Such data might be especially important for hazard identification and exposure assessment. International organizations working in these areas will very likely be needed to initiate and enable cooperation between those institutions responsible for the different assessments, as well as for exchange and analysis of information. An integrated assessment might help to focus and save capacities in highly technical areas such as molecular characterization or profiling, which are often necessary for both assessments. In the area of establishing international standards for traded foods, such as for the newly created Standards in Trade and Development Facility (STDF), an integrated assessment might help in the consideration of important environmental aspects involved in health and food safety. Furthermore, an established integrated view on GMOs may create greater consumer confidence in the technology.     

基于农产品供应链的质量安全可追溯系统

为加强农产品质量安全管理,保证消费者身体健康,从农产品供应链的角度出发,提出基于农产品供应链的质量安全可追溯系统的设计方案。在危害分析和关键控制点(hazard analysis and critical control point,HACCP)管理体系的指导下,利用二维码技术、数据库技术、网络信息技术进行系统的构建和开发,实现了农产品在整个供应链上从种植、采收、加工到销售的全程跟踪和溯源,有效地加强了对农产品质量安全的监管,保证消费者最终知情权。目前,该系统在江苏江阴地区实际测试效果良好,验证了方案的可行性和有效性。     

中国土地整理工程发展回顾与展望 ——基于《农业工程学报》"土地整理工程"专栏2002—2020年刊载文献的计量学分析

土地整理工程是保障国家粮食安全与生态安全的重要手段。为了促进土地整理工程学术交流与科技创新,《农业工程学报》自2002年开始开设"土地整理工程"专栏,随着土地整理工程研究领域和内涵的不断拓展,2020年5月第9期开始,"土地整理工程"专栏更名为"土地保障与生态安全"。该文基于文献计量方法对《农业工程学报》"土地整理工程"专栏2002—2020年期间刊发的论文进行统计分析,并对不同研究方向的研究进展进行总结,提出未来土地资源保障与国土生态安全领域的研究重点,以期为中国的粮食安全与生态安全战略提供支撑。研究发现:土地整理工程主要研究方向包括土地利用、土地评价、农地整理、耕地质量与安全、3S和土地信息技术、工矿废弃地复垦、农村居民点整理、土地生态、土地修复、基本农田建设与保护、节约用地、乡村空间格局与发展、耕地开发、市地整理等方向;土地评价、农地整理和耕地质量与安全是学者们比较关注的热点,发文量分别占比10.52%、10.16%和8.51%;围绕土地评价、农地整理、耕地质量与安全、3S和土地信息技术和工矿废弃地复垦等方向,"土地整理工程专栏"形成了10个在全国处于领先研究地位的作者合作网络组团,以及5个关键词聚类;"土地整理工程专栏"刊发论文覆盖了土地整理工程的各个方向,近年来学者们更加关注生态化土地整治,基于景观生态学等理论来构建土地利用安全格局、分析土地整治的生态效应,同时关注土地整治单项工程的生态化设计与修复技术、农村居民点的格局演变与布局优化等内容。未来土地资源保障与国土生态安全研究将更注重"系统化、生态化、信息化和智能化",研究区域生态系统保护修复的理论、方法和机理,实现"山-水-林-田-湖-草"的"整体保护、统一修复、综合治理";借助基础信息大数据,开展自然资源一张图智能化管理研究,构建国土生态安全格局。