It is important to take special precautions on the roadways during planting and harvesting season—whether you are a farmer or driver of a motor vehicle. In the Midwest region of the United States, more than 1,000 farm vehicle crashes occur each year and cause severe and fatal injuries. Most crashes (75%) result in an injury, usually with increased risk to the non-farm vehicle operator (such as a motor vehicle driver) compared to the farmer. The Great Plains Center for Agricultural Health recently conducted a study reporting that wider roads (wider shoulder width, for example) and increased lighting and marking on farm equipment are both associated with reduced roadway crash rates. …

On May 5th, the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA) Symposium targeted the opioid crisis for its annual outreach event. The symposium focused on raising awareness, providing continuing education, and sharing research about the opioid crisis in occupational and agricultural health. …

The occupational death rate on farms is nearly 800 percent greater than in all other industries combined. The leading cause of farm deaths is tractor rollovers. …

The Upper Midwest Agricultural Safety and Health Center (UMASH) is pleased to announce the addition of an agricultural worker health and safety bi-weekly news segment to the CAHFS Daily News - a food safety news feed sponsored by the University of Minnesota Center for Animal Health and Food Safety (CAHFS). …

Agricultural work is one of the most dangerous occupations in the US. In January 2017, those who work in this important industry were afforded stronger protections. On January 2nd, the first wave of revisions to the Worker Protection Standard (WPS) went into effect, aiming to minimize the adverse health effects of pesticide exposure. …

AgInjuryNews.org is a great resource to monitor injury and fatality trends. These are not official numbers, but are gleaned from news reports across the U.S. Developed by staff at the National Children’s Center for Rural and Agricultural Health and Safety (NCCRAHS) in 2015, this web-based tool compiles newspaper articles through a combination of Google alerts, review of media clippings and verified personal submissions. …

MAY 2016 Natalie Loots UMASH Evaluation Team Research Assistant, Division of Environmental Health Sciences, University of Minnesota School of Public Health “If I hadn’t been sitting in the room then I would not have made that connection.” – Carolyn Sheridan, clinical director of the AgriSafe Network referring to her experience at the May …