ABSTRACT
The risk involved in agricultural work is exceedingly high. To verify the fact, we examined the occurrence rate of accidents due to farm machinery and the workmen's accident compensation insurance accounts in the agricultural sector. Statistics available in Kanagawa Prefecture showed that 12 people out of 1, 000 engaged in agriculture were involved in farm machinery accidents annually. This figure, when compared with the average number of 4 for all the other sectors of industry, bears ample testimony to the fact that agricultural work is a very dangerous occupation-about three times as dangerous as any other occupation.<BR>Farmers across the nation have thus far paid a total of ¥3, 695 million in workmen's accident compensation insurance. Against this figure, a total of ¥6, 049 million (163.7%) have been paid in compensation for injuries those insured sustained in agricultural accidents. As for as this type of insurance is concerned, the issurer is operating in the red. Here again, it was proved that agriculture is a dangerous business.
ABSTRACT
A survey has found that the incidence of agricultural accidents caused by machinery in Kanagawa Prefecture is 14.7 per 1, 000 persons. This rate is about three times higher than that of industrial labor accidents. During the past 20 years, those who were killed in agriculturalaccidents throughout the nation totaled 7, 605 persons, which comes to an average of 380 persons per annum. From the standpoint of rural medicine and agricultural policies, this situation cannot be ignored any longer. To improve the situation, more effective safety measures must be explored. At the same time we must start investigating into human factors that lead to the accidents. The question why humans behave in a manner that may cost their own life is posed to us as a challenging theme. It is the theme to be grappled with in earnest for prevention of accidents wherever persons work in factories or in the fields. After all, accident prevention hinges on how effectively human errors can be prevented. For this purpose, it is necessary to collect as many experiences of workers as possible who have escaped death and injury by a hair's breadth during farming, and analyze those incident reports into potential accident-causing factors. If a system utilizing the data thus obtained is established in rural communities, it will be possible to further reduce the incidence of agricultural accidents.
ABSTRACT
Recent statistics show that agricultural accidents occur at a rate of 15.2 per 1, 000 persons among the farmers in Kanagawa Prefecture who are insured under the workmen's accident compensation insurance system. The rate, compared with the average of 5.5 in other industries, bespeaks the fact that people engaged in farming are at alarmingly high risk.<BR>There are various factors that are responsible for the high accident rate. Many farms in Kanagawa Prefecture are on sloping terrain and terraced, and farm roads are narrow and treacherous. These are considered to be potential accident-causing factors.<BR>Among human factors are (1) the aging of farmers and theirl slowing down in Work ;(2) their indisposition due to poor health;(3) the engaging in intensive farmwork on Saturdays and Sundays (most farmers are part-timers);(4)“Solitary work” and inadequate safety measures; and (5) anxieties over the future of agriculture.<BR>All these factors arise from the structural weakness of the nation's agriculture. Therefore, it can be said that agriculture is a structurally hazardous enterprise.
ABSTRACT
As the aging of the agricultural population has accelerated, the number of farm accidents has increased at an alarming rate.<BR>According to the statistics collected by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery, the total population of farm workers in Japan is 6, 400, 000 and the population of farm werkers over the age of 50 is 68%. The number of the farm workers who were involved in farm accidents and lost their lives was 5, 049 between 1971 and 1983. In the past three years the averaged death rate of the aged farm workers has between 70% of the total farm casualties, and 42% of them have been caused by “delayed reaction” on the part of those using farm machines. It should be noted that the accidental deaths which occur on farms occur most frequently to aged farm workers. Why do they make such deadly errors while operating farm machines? It is a very important problem we have to be concerned with when we try to reduce deadly farm accidents and increase safety among farm workers.<BR>Machine manufacturers are constantly making improvements in the performance and safety of their farm machines. Yet the number of machine hazards nevertheless has not been reduced. Taking the situation seriously, it becomes incumbent upon us to encourage machine manufactures to investi gate carefully the causes of machine hazards and to co-ordinate and promote safety, especially from the standpoint of Man-Machine interface. Furthermore, it is also very important to find out defective farm machines.<BR>In the future it is not hard to predict that the aging of the agricultural population will accelerate even more in Japan. The relation between aged farm workers and farm equipment will therefore become a major theme for any accident-prevention program. Increasing safety on the farm is as important as increasing health on the farm. Both lead to the welfare of farm workers. For this reason investment in farm safety is of vital importance to the nation.
ABSTRACT
The precious lives of farmers throughout the world must not be sacrificed by agricultural mechanization. Statistics indicate that farm accidents involving deaths break out almost every day in Japan.<BR>According to a survey of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, 4, 650 persons were killed in farm accidents in a period of 12 years from 1971, the mortality averaging 388 a year. By sex, males accounted for 77% and females 23%. By age, 60-year-olds and older people accounted for 40%, indicating a high incidence of farm accidents among old pepole.<BR>It is a grave issue that the number of accidents involving deaths in agriculture has not decreased in spite of the fact that accidents involving deaths in other industries have reduced by half. In 1981, 161, 449 farmers under the Labor Accident Insurance Scheme paid premiums to the tune of ¥1, 616 million, whereas7, 731 farmers who had been involved in farm accidents received indemnities to the amount of ¥4.2 billion, or 2.6 times the insurance premium revenue. This clearly suggests that the fund for this insurance scheme in at the brink of bankruptcy and how large the number of farm accidents is.<BR>To cope with this situation, there is a need to establish as good a system of administration for work safty in agriculture as in other industries, to encourage all farmers to subscribe to the Labor Accident Insurance Scheme and invest in their own safety, and to urge agricultural cooperatives to vitalize its farm work safety movement for the development of district agriculture in which priority is given to safety.