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J.
Etherton, J.
Myers and T. Bobick
NIOSH Education and Information Division
Older
people (55 and older) work in many industries, but agriculture
is one in which the average age has been increasing. Older
workers often perform the same manual work tasks that younger
people perform. Objectively, redesign of some of these tasks
to accommodate older workers could prevent injuries and fatalities.
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
(NIOSH) National Traumatic Occupational Fatalities data indicate
a fatality rate in agriculture for ages 55-64 as 26.5 fatalities/100,000
workers and for age 65+ as 52.3. During 1985 to 1987, the
Bureau of Labor Statistics' Supplementary
Data
System reported 5544 workers' compensation cases from 21 States
for people over the age of 54 working in crop production (SIC
01), livestock production (SIC 02), and agricultural services
(SIC 07). Of these injuries to older people working in agriculture,
31.3% (n = 1735) were sprain-strains. Two types of manual
tasks in the agriculture industry, 1) lifting tasks and 2)
manual adjustment tasks for adjustable rollover protective
structures (ROPS), provide examples of tasks needing OAW design awareness.
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and Reproduction Information: Information in NASD does not represent
NIOSH policy. Information included in NASD appears by permission
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NASD Review: 04/2002
This
research abstract was extracted from a portion of the proceedings
of "Agricultural Safety and Health: Detection, Prevention and
Intervention," a conference presented by the Ohio State University
and the Ohio Department of Health, sponsored by the Centers
for Disease Control/National Institute for Occupational Safety
and Health.
J.
Etherton, J. Myers and T. Bobick, NIOSH, Morgantown, WV.
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