RESEARCH PAPER
Analysis of injuries and causes of death in fatal farm-related incidents in Lower Silesia, Poland
 
More details
Hide details
1
Department of Forensic Medicine, Wroclaw Medical University, Poland
 
 
Ann Agric Environ Med. 2015;22(2):271-274
 
KEYWORDS
ABSTRACT
Introduction:
Workers in the agriculture sector are among the groups at the highest risk of fatal occupational injuries. The aim of study is to show the most common causes of farm-related deaths in Poland, with the circumstances, injuries sustained and mechanisms of death.

Material and Methods:
There were 109 (90.8%) males aged 19–81 and 11 females aged 19–73. 18.3% were over 60 years of age. There were 6 children (boys) aged between 2–6. A retrospective review was undertaken of 16,140 medico-legal autopsy reports by the Department of Forensic Medicine in Wroclaw between 1991–2011, which included 120 fatal farm-related incidents. The study protocol included gender, age, date and cause of death, all injuries found, circumstances and mechanism of death, place of death and blood alcohol concentration.

Results:
The most common (33/120; 27.5%) causes of death, both in men and women, were traffic accidents, the second being hit, crushed or buried by materials and falling objects. The most common injury was multi-organ damage (27/120; 22.5%), less common were cranio-cerebral injury (17/120; 14.2%) and thoracic blunt trauma (11/120; 9.2%). In multi-organ and thoracic traumas the mechanism of death was almost always exsanguinations. 85.3% of victims died at the place found. 37.2% of victims were drunk.

Conclusions:
In Poland, fatal injuries occurring in agriculture are mostly related to the misuse of transport and machinery. The main efforts to prevent accidents are engineering improvements, use of personal protective equipment, alcohol intake prevention and appropriate education of the workforce. Special prevention programmes should take gender and age differences into account.

 
REFERENCES (25)
1.
Horsburgh S, Feyer A-M, Langley JD. Fatal work related injuries in agricultural production and services to agriculture sectors of New Zealand, 1985–94. Occup Environ Med. 2001; 58(8): 489–495.
 
2.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topic... (access: 2012.12.25).
 
3.
Solomon C. Accidental injuries in agriculture in the UK. Occup Med (Lond). 2002; 52(8): 461–466.
 
4.
Central Statistical Office (GUS) http://www.stat.gov.pl/gus (access: 2012.12.25).
 
5.
Dimich-Ward H, Guernsey JR, Pickett W, Rennie D, Hartling L, Brison RJ. Gender differences in the occurrence of farm related injuries. Occup Environ Med. 2004; 61(1): 52–56.
 
6.
Rivara FP. Fatal and non-fatal farm injuries to children and adolescents in the United States, 1990- 3. Inj Prev. 1997; 3(3): 190–194.
 
7.
Agricultural Social Insurance Fund (KRUS). http://www.krus.gov.pl/ (access: 2012.12.30).
 
8.
Ciez J. Accident risk among private farmers related to using of farm machinery. Journal of Research and Applications in Agricultural Engineering 2005; 50(1): 41–44.
 
9.
DeGroot JM, Isaacs C, Pickett W, Brison RJ. Patterns of fatal machine rollovers in Canadian agriculture. Chronic Dis Inj Can. 2011; 31(3): 97–102.
 
10.
Murphy DJ, Buckmaster DR. Rollover protection for farm tractor operators. Pennsylvania State University (PA): Agricultural and Biological Engineering, 2003 http://www.abe.psu.edu/extensi... (access: 2013.01.05).
 
11.
Myers JR, Hendricks KJ. Agricultural tractor overturn deaths: assessment of trends and risk factors. Am J Ind Med. 2010; 53(7): 662–672.
 
12.
Hartling L, Pickett W, Brison RJ. Non-tractor, agricultural machinery injuries in Ontario. Can J Public Health. 1997; 88(1): 32–35.
 
13.
Keskin SG, Keskin M, Soysal Y. Assessing farm traktor incidents and awareness levels of operators for traktor safetissues in the Hatay province of Turkey. J Agric Saf Health. 2012;18(2): 113–128.
 
14.
Murphy DJ, Myers J, McKenzie EA Jr, Cavaletto R, May J, Sorensen J. Tractors and rollover protection in the United States. J Agromedicine. 2010; 15(3): 249–263.
 
15.
Nag PK, Nag A. Drudgery, accidents and injuries in Indian agriculture. Ind Health 2004; 42(2): 149–162.
 
16.
Pate ML, Merryweather AS. Utah farm owner/operators’ safety practices and risk awareness regarding confined spacework in agriculture. J Agric Saf Health. 2012; 18(4): 273–284.
 
17.
Lewandowski B, Szymańska J. Agriculture-related severe craniofacial injuries in rural children and adolescents. Ann Agric Environ Med. 2008; 15(1): 59–62.
 
18.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Work-related fatalities associated with tree care operations – United States, 1992–2007. MMWR. 2009; 58(15): 389–393.
 
19.
Jurek T, Szeszkowski L, Maksymowicz K, Wachel K, Drozd R. Lethal accidents in storage equipment: a report of two cases. Ann Agric Environ Med. 2009; 16(1): 57–60.
 
20.
Pickett W, Brison RJ, Hoey JR. Fatal and hospitalized agricultural machinery injuries to children in Ontario, Canada. Inj Prev. 1995: 1(2): 97–102.
 
21.
Flower KB, Hoppin JA, Shore DL, Lynch CF, Blair A, Knott C, et al. Causes of mortality and risk factors for injury mortality among children in the agricultural health study. J Agromedicine. 2006; 11(3–4): 47–59.
 
22.
Tiesman HM, Konda S, Bell JL. The epidemiology of fatal occupational traumatic brain injury in the U.S. Am J Prev Med. 2011: 41(1): 61–67.
 
23.
Voaklander DC, Hartling L, Pickett W, Dimich-Ward H, Brison RJ. Work-related mortality among older farmers in Canada. Can Fam Physician. 1999; 45: 2903–2910.
 
24.
Ames GM, Grube JW, Moore RS. Social control and workplace drinking norms: A comparison of two organizational cultures. J Stud Alcohol. 2000; 61(2): 203–219.
 
25.
Rygol K, Kabiesz-Neniczka St, Olszowy Z. Accidents in the workplace caused by alcohol intoxication. Arch Med Sadowej Kryminol. 2004; 54(4): 234–241.
 
eISSN:1898-2263
ISSN:1232-1966
Journals System - logo
Scroll to top