Editorial: ROPS Are Not Homemade.

Safety professionals should speak up when secondary school teachers and FFA advisors consider fabricating and installing low-cost rollover protective structures (ROPS) as service learning projects for ag education students or as a service to the farm community. These projects are often motivated by the desire to address the continued occurrence of tractor rollovers, which are the most frequent cause of farm-related fatalities (NIOSH, 2018). These projects have also been made feasible by the availability of online plans for ROPS fabrication, including plans from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) that are designed for specific makes and models of tractors. Because of the large number of older tractors that were not originally equipped with ROPS, and the cost and lack of easily accessible ROPS retrofits, fabricating a structure to provide operator protection in the event of an overturn can be attractive as a service learning project. In addition, several of the NIOSH Agricultural Injury Prevention Centers have promoted these projects as a means of reducing the frequency of rollover-related injuries. However, in light of the liability risk involved, such projects should be weighed carefully. Fabricating a ROPS is not the same as building a chicken house, fabricating a welding table, or welding together a hay feeder. ROPS are life-saving devices that must meet specific design and installation standards that exceed the expertise available in most secondary school ag education shops, and even most local machine shops. In fact, "ROPS" is a technical term defined by OSHA standards and the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE). It does not apply-nor should it be applied-to untested, homemade structures that are installed on tractors with the intent of protecting the operator.

AgrAbility mental/behavioral health for farm/ranch families with disabilities.

Farmers and their families are at high risk for work-related stressors and incidents that may result in physically disabling conditions. Coping with the acute and chronic results of disability has been documented to contribute to mental and behavioral health issues. Improvements in the ability to cope with the impact of stressors and adjustment to living with a severe disability can enhance quality of life and well-being and decrease long-term emotional complications. Due to the unique characteristics of many rural or agricultural communities (including isolation, low population density, and lack of transportation services), residents with disabilities are at significant risk for mental/behavioral health issues complicated by the lack of mental/behavioral health services and resources. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) AgrAbility Program was authorized by Congress as part of the 1990 Farm Bill to assist farmers, ranchers, their workers, and families who are impacted by disability. Initially AgrAbility services targeted physical disabilities; but as the need has become more apparent, efforts are being made to expand mental/behavioral health-related services, including referrals to appropriate sources of treatment. A survey was conducted in 2009 by the National AgrAbility Project (NAP) to identify the types of mental/behavioral health services and resources that the 21 USDA-funded State and Regional AgrAbility Projects (SRAPs) provide for their clients. Resources were also identified from three other experts in the rural mental/behavioral health field who are associated with the AgrAbility Program. The purpose of this article is to report a summary of those services and resources that are currently available through the AgrAbility network. Recommendations for the NAP concerning mental/behavioral health initiatives and implementation strategies for the SRAPs are also presented.

Bull-related incidents: their prevalence and nature.

The hazards associated with breeding livestock were well documented in some of the earliest annals of literature. With the exception of horses, bulls have probably caused more livestock- related deaths and injuries to human beings throughout recorded history than any other domesticated animal. A review of the literature might suggest that attacks by bulls were more of a problem in the past than today. However, a bull-related injury surveillance project conducted by the authors documented that bulls continue to contribute to an unacceptable number of serious injuries and deaths. In 2006, following an increase in the number of bull-attack cases identified during ongoing surveillance of agricultural work-related injuries, a search of agricultural injury data was initiated to gain a better perspective of the bull-incidence problem. Approximately 3 years of data, gathered from daily reviews of online sources plus a review of more than 12,000 prior injury reports, were combined, coded, and summarized. A total of 287 cases primarily from the United States were documented and analyzed. Where reported, contributing factors were identified, including age of victim, type of bull, type and condition of handling facility, experience of handler, and time of year. Analysis of the literature and data indicates that (1) the risk of injury associated with hours of exposure to bulls is higher than that of working around cows; (2) the risk of a bull-related fatality, based upon the hours of exposure, appears to be higher than other known hazards, such as tractor operation; (3) victims generally appeared to have had considerable experience with handling bulls; (4) bulls raised from calves on-site appeared more aggressive; and (5) most of the incidents involved the victim being inside the bull holding area. Recommendations are presented for reducing the potential of bull attacks on humans.

Estimating the prevalence of disability within the U.S. farm and ranch population.

A review of literature was conducted on farm and ranch population estimates, the prevalence of disability in that group, and the effect of disease and injury on that disability rate. Methods used by various entities (primarily governmental) to estimate the population and disability prevalence among farmers, ranchers, family members, and other agricultural workers are summarized. A systematic methodology was developed to combine results from the most recent surveys and censuses and was used to make best estimates of the agricultural population impacted by disability. The findings show that estimates of the disability population in the farm, ranch, and agricultural labor sector, ranges from 1.04 million to 2.23 million individuals depending upon which surveys and censuses are used. Primary reasons identified for the inability to provide a more precise population size include lack of consistent survey methodologies and definitions. A strong argument can be made for additional efforts to determine a more accurate value for the number of individuals in the farm and ranch population who would benefit from disability services, as well as a more accurate estimate of the total population directly involved in agricultural production. Without such data, calculation of more reliable exposure levels to injury and disability is not possible.

Contributing factors to engulfments in on-farm grain storage bins: 1980 through 2001.

Since 1978 Purdue University has maintained a national database of agriculture-related engulfment cases that have occurred in loose agricultural material in both commercial and on-farm facilities. The database presently contains 502 documented cases of fatal and non-fatal engulfments from the U.S. and Canada. A review of the more recent on-farm fatal and non-fatal engulfment cases, those occurring in 1980 through 2001, was conducted in order to characterize engulfments and identify contributing factors that would be relevant to future intervention strategy development including the implementation of design standards for on-farm structures. From 1980 through 2001, 197 cases were identified that occurred in on-farm grain bins, 156 of which were fatal and 41 were non-fatal. A rate of approximately seven fatal and two non-fatal cases per year were identified from 1980 through 2001. The magnitude of the engulfment problem is continuing, based on six and seven fatal cases reported in the years 2000 and 2001, respectively. Sixteen percent of fatal and six percent of non-fatal victims were children and adolescents under the age of 16. Fifty percent of the survivors were 60 years of age or older. Engulfments were generally reported more often in the top corn-producing states and involved corn in 76% of the fatal cases when product was known. Seventy-seven percent of the fatal victims were unloading the bin at the time of engulfment in cases where activity at the time of engulfment was known. Forty-one percent of the fatality cases involved corn that was out-of-condition where the condition of the grain was known. In survival cases where information about the presence of co-workers at the time of engulfment was known, it was found that a co-worker was present at the time of engulfment in 86% of the cases. In four cases, a survivor was rescued from a bin after being completely engulfed in grain. In all four cases, a co-worker was present at the time of engulfment and out-of-condition grain was involved. Findings are being used to design new injury prevention strategies, including educational materials and recommendations for engineering controls that focus on primary causative factors.