UC Agricultural Health & Safety Center at Davis
AgHealthNews
Issue Number 1998-02
Spring 1998
Published by the UC Agricultural Health & Safety Center at
Davis, University of California, Davis, Marc Schenker, M.D., M.P.H.,
Director, Produced by EditPros, Davis, CA
1998-02-01 TABLE OF CONTENTS
- 1998-02-01 Table of Contents
- 1998-02-02 Welcome and Introduction
- 1998-02-03 Farm safety day camps: a fun way
to learn about hazards
- 1998-02-04 Occupational injuries: a new approach
to calculating risks
- 1998-02-05 Five-year projects provide valuable
data on agricultural injuries and illnesses
- 1998-02-06 Two studies aim to protect minority
populations in California agriculture
- 1998-02-07 EPA report of 1994-95 estimated
pesticide sales and use in the U.S. available
1998-02-02 WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION
Welcome to the UC Agricultural Health & Safety Center at Davis
AgHealthNews.
AgHealthNews is an electronic version of the Center's quarterly
newsletter. The Center has two electronic list servers that allow
automatic forwarding of e-mail to a list of subscribers. One server
is a forum for announcements and discussion of agricultural health
and safety issues and the other is a vehicle for the automatic distribution
of the Center's quarterly newsletter.
The e-mail addresses for the forum is: aghealth@epm.ucdavis.edu
(message forwarding address) and aghealth-request@epm.ucdavis.edu
(subscriber request address). The addresses for the newsletter are:
aghealthnews@oem.ucdavis.edu (message forwarding address) and aghealthnews-request@oem.ucdavis.edu
(subscriber request address).
To subscribe to a list, send an e-mail message to the request address
with no subject and a one line message giving the option subscribe
and your name. For example, to subscribe to the forum for announcements
and general agricultural health and safety issues, you would send
the following: To: aghealth-request@epm.ucdavis.edu Subject: Message:
subscribe (your name here)
By return e-mail you will receive confirmation of your request
and more information about using the list server request functions.
To subscribe to the On-line News, your request would look like:
To: aghealthnews-request@oem.ucdavis.edu Subject: Message: subscribe
(your name here)
1998-02-03 FARM SAFETY DAY CAMPS: A FUN WAY TO
LEARN ABOUT HAZARDS
By Jennifer Weber
During the past few years, the nation has become aware of the
prevalence and seriousness of childhood injuries and death in agriculture.
Thanks to Farm Safety 4 Just Kids, established just over a decade
ago by a mother who lost her 11-year-old son in a farm-related accident,
farm safety day camps are gaining in popularity as fun and effective
ways to teach children about specific hazards in agriculture and
to promote safety on the farm. Center investigators invited Marilyn
Adams, founder and president of Farm Safety 4 Just Kids, to share
her organization's success with farm safety day camps. "If we hope
to decrease the incidence of traumatic injuries and deaths for this
rural population, it is essential to start developing a new safety
attitude at this young age while involving older students and adults
in the learning process," said Adams during her presentation to
students and agricultural health and safety professionals at UC
Davis in February.
 Marilyn Adams
Farm safety day camps are community events designed to give children
an age-appropriate introduction to the concepts of farm safety through
activities at various work stations. "It is set up like a workshop
where kids can go from one station to another to learn about safety,"
explained Adams. Adams presented information on eight safety station
topics that are frequently used at Farm Safety 4 Just Kids day camps.
The station topics included all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), animals,
hidden hazards, flowing grain, chemicals, lawn mowing, power take-offs
(PTOs) and tractors. At each station, children learn farm safety
facts pertaining to the topic presented and participate in hands-on
activities and demonstrations. Adams described how the use of farm
safety rules that can be put to music can be included in the lessons
to help children remember key points.
She recognized that the situation in California agriculture is
different from that in her home state of Iowa, where many of the
Farm Safety 4 Just Kids programs and resources are developed. "The
advantage of the day camp format is that it can be easily adapted
to fit the needs of any community," Adams said. "The key to holding
a successful farm safety day camp is the involvement of community
leaders who know the local agricultural situation and farming practices."
Some of the more elaborate day camps have been held at fairgrounds
and have featured puppet shows, guest celebrity appearances and
emergency vehicle demonstrations. "Some of the unique things that
drew attention at day camps in other states were celebrity guests
who played the role of victims. A staged rescue is something that
also gets a lot of attention, or even having the local ambulance
or helicopter on site." However, Adams said that day camps don't
have to be sophisticated to be effective. Many groups have had success
with safety presentations delivered to families at company-sponsored
potlucks.
Patrick O'Connor-Marer, Center coordinator for the Farm Safety
4 Just Kids project, envisions the safety day camp concept as the
most effective way to teach safety information to children in California.
A very similar training method has been used to educate more than
26,000 pesticide safety trainers over the past eight years. "This
format is much better than the classroom-type of training to which
people are accustomed. It allows you to work with smaller groups
so that you can adapt the training to meet the individual needs
of the audience. It is easier to notice if someone is falling behind
and allows for others to share information with the group. In addition,
it enables you to do hands-on activities that you couldn't do in
large groups, so the training is more interactive," said O'Connor-Marer.
Adams agrees and added that she has seen great results from farm
safety day camps. "The children do change behaviors because they
have an increased awareness of the hazards, and they learn to respect
and develop a greater understanding of the limitations set by parents."
She added that the safety information doesn't stop with the children.
"The kids who attend the day camps end up sharing their knowledge
with their family members and peers. Plus, everyone involved in
the preparation and the hard work of hosting a day camp work as
a team and learn as well. The information reaches all age levels,"
she said.
Kathy Garvey, a writer for IPM Education and Publications and
a project leader with the Suisun Valley 4-H Club said, "Most farmers
can tell you scores of accidents that could have been prevented-from
fatalities on overturned tractors to injuries resulting from falling
out of haymows, getting clothing caught on moving equipment, to
riding double on one-seat tractors and tangling with angry bulls."
Garvey, who was born and raised on a 300-acre dairy farm, continued,
"I think farm safety camps for children are a great idea. Preventing
just one death or one disabling injury is well worth the time, cost
and effort expended in organizing a safety camp."
For more information about organizing a farm safety day camp
for children, contact Patrick O'Connor-Marer at (530) 752-7694,
or Jennifer Weber at (530) 752-5930.
1998-02-04 OCCUPATIONAL INJURIES: A NEW APPROACH
TO CALCULATING RISKS
By Don Villarejo
The determination of incidence rates of occupational injuries
and illnesses among hired farmworkers presents formidable methodological
challenges. Measurement of the magnitude of the population's exposure
to the risk of injury ultimately depends on the size of the hired
farmworker labor force, which is not accurately known since it fluctuates
widely. Investigators in many disciplines, ranging from labor economics
to epidemiology, have been unable to present compelling evidence
supporting the accuracy of the size of this population.
Reports of injuries among this population are generally incomplete,
primarily due to language and cultural differences of a labor force
composed mostly of low-literacy, recent immigrants. This is further
complicated by the reluctance of many hired farmworkers, especially
those who are not authorized to work in the United States, to report
injuries to anyone in authority. Ethnographic studies suggest that
some hired farmworkers who experience on-the-job injuries perform
an informal calculus in which they weigh the opportunity cost of
lost income against the risk of damaging health effects that may
result from leaving such injuries untreated.
A new method for determining occupational injury incidence rates
among hired farmworkers relies exclusively on reports pertaining
to all paid claims by hired farmworkers under Workers' Compensation
Insurance. This allows investigators to determine incidence rates
for persons employed in each of 14 different types of agricultural
commodities.
Workers' Compensation Insur-ance Rating Bureau of California (WCIRB)
provided the California Institute for Rural Studies (CIRS) summaries
of case reports including injury date, type of injury, body part
affected, nature of injury, weekly earnings of claimant, medical
payments, indemnity payments (if any) and the risk classification
code-categorization of the commodity group in which the injury occurred.
In addition, WCIRB provided total wages paid by all employers in
each risk classification code as a surrogate for direct measurement
of exposure. The number of reported paid claims under Workers' Compensation
Insurance by hired farmworkers in California for the period 1978-94
totaled 673,316.
Aggregate wages and average weekly earnings for each risk classification
code were used to determine annual average employment (FTE). The
total number of reported paid claims within each classification
code was then utilized to compute the incidence rate for occupational
injury in the respective category. From these data investigators
were able to calculate an overall incidence rate for California
hired farmworkers.
CIRS investigators determined the 1994 incidence rates for non-fatal
occupational injuries and illnesses ranged from a high of 19,660
cases per 100,000 FTE for stock farm and feed yard workers to a
low of 4,440 cases per 100,000 FTE for berry farmworkers. Overall,
investigators found the incidence rate among all California hired
farmworkers in 1994 to be 10,546 per 100,000 FTE. These results
compare favorably to other recent reportings of incidence rates
for injury among hired farmworkers.
Workers' Compensation Insur-ance is required by statute for virtually
all hired farmworkers in 14 states, including California. In most
states, hired farmworkers are protected as a result of broadly worded
legislation intended to provide coverage for nearly every employed
person. Exceptions are specified for federal employees (covered
under the Jones Act), railroad workers, maritime and longshore workers
and certain other categories of employees. Self-employed persons
are normally exempted. In all cases, the burden of proof is on an
employer to demonstrate that an individual should not be insured,
rather than the reverse.
In determining incidence rates, case reports of injuries or illnesses
covered by Workers' Compensation Insurance provide a useful body
of data. In principle, both frequencies of injuries and illnesses
and measures of exposure are available for a well-defined population.
The accuracy and reliability of both sets of data are a matter of
concern. For this reason, individual case reports concerning claims
under Workers' Compensation must include a physician's certification
regarding the nature and cause of the injury or illness, and an
insurance provider reviews the claim as well. Thousands of claims
are rejected every year.
These results for the incidence rate for occupational injury among
hired farm workers are consistent with other reports in the literature.
In particular, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Survey for California
farm operators shows a rate of 12,600 cases per 100,000 FTE in 1993
and 11,900 cases per 100,000 FTE in 1992 (California Department
of Industrial Relations, 1992-93). The method presented herein finds
11,960 cases per 100,000 FTE in 1993 and 13,930 cases per 100,000
FTE in 1992. However, some caution is essential in making these
comparisons since the BLS Survey excludes farms with 10 or fewer
employees, and we have excluded Agricultural Service categories
of employers (SIC 07).
Substantial evidence indicates that new initiatives intended to
reduce injuries may be having an effect. For example, all California
employers are now required to have a written Illness and Injury
Prevention Plan in place. Although passed by the California Legislature
in 1989, the requirement was not fully implemented until 1991. Similarly,
the 1992 referendum re-establishing Cal-OSHA put a boost into field
enforcement efforts. And in late 1992, the establishment of the
Targeted Industries Partnership Program among the leading field
enforcement agencies set enforcement of labor and safety laws in
agriculture and garment as its highest priorities. Finally, the
sharp increase in Workers' Compensation Insurance premiums, by two
and one-half fold between 1985 and 1992, undoubtedly got the attention
of the employer community.
Don Villarejo is executive director of the California Institute
for Rural Studies and has served as a Center investigator for the
past eight years. This article is based on his presentation at the
NIOSH Agricultural Health and Safety Conference in Morgantown, WV,
last July. For more information, call Villarejo at (530) 756-6555
or e-mail: dqvillarejo@ucdavis.edu.
1998-02-05 FIVE-YEAR PROJECTS PROVIDE VALUABLE
DATA ON AGRICULTURAL INJURIES AND ILLNESSES
Nurses Using Rural Sentinel Events (NURSE) and Farm Family Health
and Hazard Surveillance (FFHHS) are two agricultural occupational
injury and illness research projects that have been conducted in
Monterey and Fresno counties since 1991. NURSE and FFHHS are based
at the Occupational Health Branch of the California Department of
Health Services and sponsored by the National Institute for Occupational
Safety and Health. NURSE is part of the national Occupational Health
Nurses in Agricultural Com-munities (OHNAC) project. The NURSE and
FFHHS projects have been conducted either separately or together
in several states nationwide, including Colorado, Iowa, Georgia,
Kentucky, Maine, Minnesota, Ohio, New York, North Carolina and North
Dakota.
 E. Lee Husting
E. Lee Husting, Ph.D., M.P.H., project coordinator and senior
research scientist, was guest speaker in December for the Center's
noon seminar series. Husting presented preliminary findings from
both projects in his talk titled "Status of and Preliminary Results
from the NURSE and Farm Family Projects Related to Agricultural
Injuries, Health, Safety and Outreach in Fresno and Monterey Counties."
Investigators in the NURSE surveillance project collected data from
several sources, including Doctor's First Reports (DRFs), a mandatory
medical occupational injury illness reporting system in California.
"A nurse visited or made arrangements to obtain Doctor's First
Reports of Occupational Injury or illness, which are required to
be completed by health care providers within five days of identifying
a work-related injury or illness [event]," said Husting. "The purpose
of the project was to utilize existing clinic, hospital and other
data sources to get a fix on work-related injuries and illnesses."
Data was obtained from 12 hospitals, four clinics, seven health
centers and three acute care centers. "To date, more than 5,000
incidents have been reviewed in detail, and this information has
been entered into a database," explained Husting.
The ICD-9-CM International Classification of Diseases was used
to categorize types and causes of injuries in the NURSE database.
The more common types of injuries included: open wound of finger(s),
sprains and strains of the sacroiliac region, and sprains of other
and unspecified parts of the back. The more common external causes
of injuries were: overexertion and strenuous movements, accidents
caused by cutting and piercing instruments or objects, and accidents
caused by machinery.
In addition to providing a unique database of injury and illness
events from 1991 to 1996, the NURSE project produced 35 illustrative
case-based incident reports. Each NURSE Report contains a detailed
description of an investigated injury incident, outlines of both
health and safety prevention strategies for educational purposes,
and English and Spanish summary pages.
"The NURSE Reports have been in demand as teaching devices [for
agricultural health and safety] because a single-page Spanish summary
is included along with each report," said Husting. More than 400
sets of NURSE Reports have been distributed to various agricultural
health and safety organizations, insurance com-panies, farm owners,
farm workers and government agencies.
The FFHHS project began in 1991 and is a cross-sectional survey
of farms and agricultural workers, including self-reported information
on work history by geographic area, season, commodity and task;
demographics; medical care access; and health and safety trainings.
More than 350 farms have been visited with nearly 2,500 face-to-face
farmworker interviews conducted by bilingual staff members. Approximately
350 owner/operator inter-views were conducted and more than 150
hazard evaluations have been completed. Farms were selected from
a sample of farms stratified by commodity and size.
The FFHHS data are currently being entered and analyzed, and a
final report as well as presentations and publications are expected
to be available in 1998 and 1999. The NURSE project ended in 1996,
and a final report and associated publications are due later in
1998. For more information, write the Occupational Health Branch
of California Department of Health Services, 2151 Berkeley Way,
Annex 11, 3rd Floor, Berkeley, CA 94704, or call (510) 540-2115.
1998-02-06 TWO STUDIES AIM TO PROTECT MINORITY
POPULATIONS IN CALIFORNIA AGRICULTURE
By Rose Krebill-Prather
Needs assessment surveys have become more common in recent years
as funding sources dwindle. Grantors want to make sure that they
are funding projects that meet intended goals and make meaningful
contributions to society. In 1997, I was asked to develop surveys
to evaluate two Center outreach programs. In both projects, baseline
data was needed to better understand the contexts in which the respective
outreach programs will be implemented. The baseline surveys will
also help in our efforts to assess the impact of those programs
after they are underway.
 Rose Krebill-Prather
The goal of the Rural Health Clinic Survey is to provide training
and education to rural health care providers in the recognition
and reporting of pesticide illness and injury. Currently in its
second year, the five-year program attempts to reach health care
providers for farmworkers and their families. In the survey, we
measure character-istics of the rural health clinic staff and clientele,
outreach programs and clinic experience with pesticide exposure
cases.
Last summer, investigators contacted seventeen rural health clinics
around the state and conducted personal interviews in 13 of those
clinics, which represent 52 satellite clinics. While only a small
portion of the annual clinic caseloads are occupational-related
illness or injury, most of the clinics have had experience with
actual or at least suspected cases of pesticide exposure. Clinic
representatives indicated strong interest in receiving training
in pesticide-related illness and injury and the appropriate reporting
procedures. In-service trainings and workshops were the preferred
educational format. With the results of the needs assessment, project
investigators, Patrick O'Connor-Marer and Jennifer Weber of the
UC IPM Pesticide Education Program, are currently designing a program
to assist clinics in recognizing and reporting pesticide-related
injuries and illnesses.
Southeast Asian farmers represent a relatively new immigrant group
in Fresno and San Joaquin counties with limited contact with the
UC Cooperative Extension. The goal of the UC Small Farm Center project,
which includes a survey of Southeast Asian farmers, is to provide
pesticide safety training and educational materials in a culturally
appropriate format.
This survey posed special challenges. First, the language and
cultural distinctiveness of this population requires translation
of the survey instrument. We were concerned whether or not the wording
of questions in the respondants' language would be understood in
the same way that they are intended in English. Furthermore, the
languages of the two main ethnic groups represented in the survey,
Hmong and Mien, are different structurally with a relatively recent
history in written form.
Our second challenge was how to shape the questionnaire, since
we had limited prior contact with this culturally isolated population.
Without knowing more specific characteristics of these farmers and
their operations, certain survey questions could potentially suggest
information to the respondents and thereby bias the results. For
example, by listing response categories in the wording of a question
without knowing the potential list of response categories, respondents
may feel constrained by the list of choices given rather than to
give their "true" response. As a way of reducing potential bias,
our questionnaire includes more open-ended questions that in turn
are more difficult to quantify and analyze.
Social desirability represented a third concern. Because of the
newness of the contact with this group, little trust had been previously
established with UC Cooperative Extension. We feared that farmers
may answer questions in a way that they think will please the interviewer
rather than to report their "true" response. Social desirability
is a particular concern when surveys include more sensitive topics
such as pesticide use and safety.
A fourth challenge emerged after the interviews were underway.
An ambiguity developed between the interviewers' survey role and
their cooperative extension role. In both counties, Southeast Asian
farmers have many questions about pest identification and management
for which they would like assistance. While interviewers have been
instructed to maintain their neutral role as a survey researcher,
they have found it difficult to put the farmers' needs aside for
fear it will jeopardize the farmers' emerging receptivity to university
assistance.
Preliminary results from 33 interviews reveal that most of the
Southeast Asian farmers have been farming in the United States for
less than 10 years and have operations with four acres or less.
Strawberries and beans were the two most frequently grown crops.
Results indicate farmers are using chemicals to control pests and
that they have some awareness of the hazards or use of protective
gear while spraying.
Overall, the farmers have lower levels of education and about
one-fifth are illiterate. However, more than half speak and/or read
at least some English. Currently, farmers tend to rely on other
farmers or their own experience when they have a question about
pest management. With a preliminary understanding of the program
context, Desmond Jolly, director of the Small Farm Center, is currently
developing outreach programs that will better relate to Southeast
Asian farmers.
For more information on the Rural Health Clinic Survey, contact
Patrick O'Connor-Marer at (530) 752-7694 or Jennifer Weber at (530)
752-5930. The estimated completion date for the UC Small Farm Center
project is the year 2000. For more information, contact Desmond
Jolly at (530) 752-8136.
Rose Krebill-Prather, Ph.D., a sociologist and program evaluator
for the UC Statewide IPM Project, presented preliminary results
of her surveys during the Center's noon seminar in January. The
title of her talk was "Evaluation of the Center Outreach Programs."
1998-02-07 EPA REPORT OF 1994-95 ESTIMATED PESTICIDE
SALES AND USE IN THE U.S. AVAILABLE
The Environmental Protection Agency has released its latest estimate
of pesticide use in a report "Pesticide Industry Sales and Usage--l994
and l995 Market Estimates." The report indicates a continuation
of recent trends in agricultural pesticide use remaining stable
with year to year variations resulting from changes in acreage planted
and weather conditions.
The use of herbicides to control weeds in the United States for
agricultural purposes has increased slightly over the previous three
years. The increase is due primarily to more acres planted to pesticide-using
crops including corn, soybeans, cotton, rice and sunflowers. At
the same time, the report shows that the use of conventional pesticides
for non-agricultural use (commercial, government and industry and
homeowners) has declined over the same period of time.
An average of nearly $4,200 per farm was expended in l995 on pesticides.
Conventional pesticides account for about 27 percent of all pesticides
used annually in the United States and total an estimated 1.2 billion
pounds.
To obtain a copy of the 35-page report write: U.S. EPA, NCEPI,
P.O. Box 42419, Cincinnati, Ohio 45242-2419; or call (513) 489-8190.
Only single copies are available. The report is also available on
the Internet at www.epa.gov/pesticides.
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