We discussed the University of Iowa College of Public Health study on the stressors that farmers are having to deal with right now. However, this wasn?t the only study they were conducting with farmers at the time. Farmers were also surveyed on their biggest safety concerns in the industry. New technology is giving us new challenges, and new worries.
Kanika Arora is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Management and Policy in the College of Public Health at the University of Iowa. The survey was conducted with the same 540 farmers who answered the stress survey. Professor Arora says the top three safety concerns were: chemical safety, equipment safety, and their health outcomes from years of working in the industry. Further down the list were lesser concerns such as safety when handling livestock, roadway safety, confined space safety, and effects of falls and aging.
Long-term health concerns were something new in this study, according to Arora. She talks a little bit more in-depth about what concerns they heard from farmers on this topic. More of these concerns were expressed in the mail survey, rather than the in-person surveys at farm shows. Arora attributes this to the stigma of voicing these concerns anonymously.
You can find a synopsis to both the stress and safety surveys conducted by the University of Iowa College of Public health right here. The website has links to more resources and information as well.
