The increase in farm accidents in an aging agricultural society / 日本農村医学会雑誌

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.