When fatal work injuries are investigated, state health professionals provide employers with recommendations to prevent future fatalities. In 1994, Department staff identified 83 fatal work incidents involving 92 deaths. Staff conducted investigations at 32 worksites, providing immediate recommendations for improved safety measures. Information from these investigations is also used to inform other worksites where similar hazards may exist. Farming is one of the few occupations in which families who share in the work and live on the premises are also at risk for injuries, illness, and death.
Interventions target the health care community and farm families.
Continuing education seminars were provided for physicians and focused on increasing mammography use, improving identification of early skin cancer lesions, and increasing routine skin cancer screening. The project also seeks to determine skin and breast cancer screening utilization rates in targeted Minnesota counties and to validate self-reported use of mammography. This is the largest case-control study of brain cancer to date and has the potential to improve our understanding of why farmers have an increased risk for brain cancer. This program has conducted a survey to assess the frequency of illnesses and injuries in Minnesota farmers. While data are still being analyzed, a preliminary report on eye injuries and their prevention was published in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.