Agricultural Medicine

Rural Occupational and Environmental Health, Safety, and Prevention

Kelley J. Donham, Anders Thelin

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781118647400
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Technik & Maschinenbau
• Subtopic: Landwirtschaft

Newly updated, Agricultural Medicine: Rural Occupational Health, Safety, and Prevention, Second Edition is a groundbreaking and comprehensive textbook and reference for students and practitioners of public health, and professionals in the field of rural agricultural occupational health and safety. The book introduces specific occupational and environmental health and safety issues faced by agricultural workers and rural residents, and provides a roadmap to establishing sustainable worker and public health support in agricultural communities.

Responding to reader demand, Agricultural Medicine, Second Edition now features more case studies, key point summaries, and new international perspective chapters comparing North American health and agricultural practices to those in Europe, the Asia Pacific, and South America.

Agricultural health and safety engages a multidisciplinary team of medical professionals, veterinarians, safety professionals, engineers, sociologists, epidemiologists, and psychologists, for whom this book serves as an essential resource.

Chapter 1
Introduction and Overview

Kelley J. Donham and Anders Thelin and Reviewer: Susan Brumby

1.1 Introduction to the Professional Specialty of Agricultural Medicine (Agricultural Safety and Health)

Those working in the agricultural industry producing food, fiber, and fuel experience one of the highest risks factors among all occupations for injury, illness, and death. This is true for developed economies as well as developing and the least developed economies of the world. (Note: The categorical terms for nation state development are those of the United Nations). The aim of this chapter is to provide the introduction and background to the developing specialty field of agricultural medicine/agricultural safety and health to a multidiscipline audience of health and safety professionals and students. Our intermediate goal is to increase the knowledge of this field in health and safety among rural professionals and students, and instill passion among them to apply their skills to keep farmers, their families, and their workers alive and well in agriculture. The long-term goal is to reduce adverse occupational health, economic, social, and emotional problems to at least a level comparable to all other occupations.

1.2 Terminology and Definitions

Most countries’ agricultural industrial classification schemes include production agriculture (farming and ranching), forestry, and fishing. This book is about the occupational health and safety of people working in production agriculture—those who produce food, fiber, and bio-fuels for the world. In this chapter, there are nine main topic areas that will be covered: (1) a history and definition of terms relevant to agricultural safety and health, (2) a description and background of an agricultural safety and health professional, (3) the training required of the latter, (4) the demographics of the agricultural workforce, (5) types of farms, (6) the health status of the agricultural workforce, (7) the occupational health status of the agricultural workforce, (8) persistent and emerging megatrends shaping agriculture, and (9) a brief overview of the major occupational health and injury issues in agriculture and their prevention.

Regarding historical perspectives and terminology, several terms have been used to describe the fields of endeavor aimed at the health of our rural and agricultural communities. Donham and colleagues (1) described the historical context of these terms, although today they are often used interchangeably. Figure 1.1 illustrates the various terms used and their relationships. The two primary terms used to describe health-related activities in rural areas are rural health and agricultural health and safety. Rural health is defined by the National Rural Health Association as a field of endeavor aimed at the development and support of healthcare services (providers and facilities) that are accessible and appropriate for all rural residents (2). The field of rural health does not focus on any particular diseases, occupation, ethnic group, or prevention, but on provision of services (healthcare personnel and facilities) aimed to take care of the usual episodic illnesses of rural residents (3). Agricultural health and safety, on the other hand, is a broad term that is used to describe a field of practice and associated endeavors aimed at prevention and treatment of occupational injuries and illnesses in agricultural populations. Underneath this latter umbrella term are several interrelated terms: agricultural medicine, agromedicine, and agricultural safety. Although each term is associated with activities aiming to reduce injuries and illness in agricultural populations, each term has a slightly different history, concept, focus, professional make-up, and culture.

Figure 1.1 Terminology/fields of endeavor addressing the health of rural residents, owners/operators, and workers in production agriculture.

Within the broader field of agricultural safety and health, the term “agricultural medicine” has been used since the 1950s to describe a specialty discipline of the broader field of occupational medicine and occupational health. Table 1.1 summarizes the key dates and events in the development of the term agricultural medicine and the variant term agromedicine (4–15). Bernardo Ramazzini, an Italian physician of the early 1700s, has been generally recognized as the father of occupational medicine. His book (Diseases of Workers, translated from Latin) describes in detail many occupationally related diseases (which he observed in his farm patients), many of which we still recognize today (4). The history of occupational medicine and occupational health generally (and agricultural medicine specifically) can be traced to his writings.

Table 1.1 A brief history of agricultural safety and health

1713 Bernardo Ramazzini published his book Diseases of Workers (4) 1945 Toshikazu Wakatsuki established an outreach medical and prevention program for the farming community at Saku Central Hospital, Japan (5) 1945 Founding of the Institute of Farm Safety Specialists, which became the National Institute for Farm Safety in 1962 and in the International Society for Agricultural Safety and Health in 2012 1951 Founding of the Institute of Rural Occupational Health, Lublin, Poland 1955 Founding of the Institute of Agricultural Medicine, University of Iowa 1961 Founding of the International Association of Agricultural Medicine and Rural Health in Tours, France 1965 Founding of the Journal of the International Association of Agricultural Medicine and Rural Health 1973 Founding of the Institute of Rural Environmental Health (Occupational Health and Safety Section), Colorado State University (now the High Plains Intermountain Health and Safety) 1973 The term “agromedicine” first used by John Davies (6) 1974 The agricultural medicine training program at the University of Iowa started 1976 The peer-reviewed article “The Spectrum of Agricultural Medicine” outlining the didactic areas of agricultural medicine published in Minnesota Medicine (7, 11) 1977 Founding of farmers’ occupational health services in Sweden and Finland 1979 Article published by Elliott in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine that gave the first definition of agricultural medicine (8, 13) 1981 Founding of the National Farm Medicine Center, Marshfield, Wisconsin 1982 Article published by donham that gave a more detailed definition of agricultural medicine, differentiating it from the field of rural health (9, 14) 1984 Establishment of the first agromedicine program as a consortium of the Department of Family Medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina and Clemson University 1986 Founding of the Institute for Agricultural Medicine and Rural Environmental Health, University of Saskatchewan, Canada (now the Canadian Centre for Health and Safety in Agriculture) 1988 Founding of the North American Agromedicine consortium 1988 Agriculture at Risk Report (10) 1988 Founding of the Australian Center for Agricultural Health and Safety at Moree, New South Wales 1990 Founding of Iowa’s Center for Agricultural Safety and Health 1990 Founding of the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health Program on Agricultural Safety and Health, leading to 10 regional centers across the United States 1991 Surgeon General’s Conference on Agricultural Safety and Health 1992 Publication of the text Safety and Health in Production Agriculture (11) 1994 Founding of the Journal of Agromedicine 1994 Founding of the Annals of Agricultural and Environmental Medicine 1995 Founding of the Journal of Agricultural Safety and Health 1997 Publication of the reference book Safety and Health in Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing (86) 2002 Founding of Norway’s Farmer Health and Safety Program (Landbrukets HMS-tjeneste) 2003 Publication of Looking Beneath the Surface of Agricultural Safety and Health (13) 2003 Transition of the Iowa Agricultural Health and Safety Network to a new national non-profit organization, the AgriSafe Network 2006 Publication of the text book Agricultural Medicine: Occupational and Environmental Health for the Health Professions (14) 2006 Publication of Agricultural Medicine: A Practical Guide (15, 85) 2006 University of Iowa founded the first specifically titled MS and PhD graduate degrees and a certificate program in agricultural safety and health 2006 Founding of the University of Iowa’s program Building Capacity in Agricultural Medicine Training, which initiated sustainable training programs in agricultural medicine. Programs have been initiated in nine US states (Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, North Dakota, Nebraska, Vermont, North Carolina, Alabama, and Texas), and in Australia and Turkey 2007 Founding of the Agricultural Safety and Health Council of America 2008 Founding of the Australian Center for Farmers’ Health at Hamilton, Victoria 2011 National Institute for Far...