Twelve farmers in the Cuming County area are being sought to enroll in the program, which will be administered by UNMC, St. Francis Memorial Hospital in West Point and the Cuming County Cooperative Extension. It is being headed by Susanna Von Essen, M.D., associate professor in the UNMC Internal Medicine Department. A pulmonologist, Dr. Von Essen is a native of Pender, Neb., who grew up on a farm and has always had an interest in farm health and safety issues. We feel there is a need for new incentives to help convince farmers to take advantage of existing technology to reduce hazards from working with machinery as well as health risks from agricultural exposures. In 1995, the death rate in agriculture was 24 per 100,000 workers compared to 4 per 100,000 for all occupations.
Agriculture ranks second only to mining in terms of risk for fatal injury.
In addition, a variety of medical illnesses are disproportionately common among farmers, including respiratory disease, cancers of the lip and the skin, and hearing loss. There is also evidence that cancers of the bone marrow and lymph system are more common in agricultural workers. In some aspects of agriculture, such as animal confinement, up to 50 percent of workers are affected by work-related respiratory disorders. Participants will be required to maintain an injury log detailing any farm accidents that occur during the two years, Dr. Von Essen said. They will be required to have an on-site farm safety assessment, which will focus on potential problems such as shields missing from machinery.