Fatal agricultural injuries in North Carolina by race and occupation, 1977–1991
✍ Scribed by David Richardson; Dana Loomis; Susanne H. Wolf; Eileen Gregory
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1997
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 66 KB
- Volume
- 31
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0271-3586
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Medical examiner reports and death certificates were reviewed for all fatal agricultural injuries (n 5 228) that occurred on-the-job in North Carolina between 1977 and. Data were collected on the decedents' age, gender, race, date and time of injury, means of injury, and occupation. Annual workforce estimates were derived from the 1980 and 1990 US Census of the Population. Overall, 54% of the fatal injuries were due to tractors. Farmers who suffered fatal injuries tended to be older (median age 5 56 years) and Caucasian (87%), while farm workers who died on the job were younger (median age 5 35 years) and more often African-American (60%). The crude mortality rate for farmers was 38 per 100,000 worker-years; the crude rate for farm laborers was 16 per 100,000 worker-years. Ageadjusted fatal injury rates were 2.5 times higher among African-American farmers than among Caucasian farmers; furthermore, between 1977 and 1991 the rate of fatal injury among African-American farmers increased an estimated 14.7% per year. African-American farmers in North Carolina have experienced rising rates of fatal injuries at a time when employment in the industry is declining due to consolidation of farm ownership and foreclosures of African-American owned farms. In order to address the growing racial disparity in farm fatalities, efforts need to be made to improve the conditions under which African-