About 1.3 million youths below age 20 lived on farms and ranches in 1991 and 800,000 others were members of hired farm-worker families, including migrant and seasonal workers. Many fall victim each year when they become trapped beneath overturned tractors, entangled in heavy farm machinery, involved in accidents with livestock, suffocate in grain bins, fall or suffer electric shock. Others become ill from exposure to pesticides, farm fuels and noxious gases. The second is to accumulate the best available data to the extent of the problem so that we can understand what caused the events with the ultimate goal of preventing them.
Accidents are inherently preventable.
In addition to today's town meeting, Rosenstock said her agency will reach out to farm families and workers, the agricultural industry, health professionals and educators for information and recommendations. Unlike non-farm businesses, where young workers are protected by Labor Department regulations, most farm youth have no formal safety shield. The program is designed to identify factors that put children at serious risk of injury on the farm and to develop better information about the prevalence and circumstances of such injuries. It also is intended to provide new approaches for raising the awareness about safety risks for children on farms and information to help farm families, communities and organizations safeguard young people. It also plans to create a National Center for the Prevention of Childhood Agricultural Injury.