Occupational Accidents in Finnish Agriculture - Causality and Managerial Aspects for Prevention

Knowledge about the causation of accidents in agriculture is insufficient to further reduce the risk for accidents. Since in the literature review tractors were identified as a major source of accident risks in agriculture in the developed countries, case studies were focused to them in order to gain sufficient information on accident causation. The focus of the thesis was defining the problem areas of safety and means of intervention. Specifically, the applicability of the organisational accident theory for predicting and preventing accidents in family farming was studied. Furthermore, a research method was developed. It combines statistical and case studies guided by theory. According to the results, Finnish agriculture is not notably safer than agriculture in other developed countries. Compared to working life in general, the incidence of non-fatal accidents seems to be higher for agriculture in Finland. Injuries in agriculture are more severe than in all industries on an average, resulting in more than twice the number of days of incapacity for work. The accident rate for compensated accidents of agriculture has been slightly, but statistically highly significantly, decreasing during the period 1991–2001, from 84 to 68 per 1 000 farmers per year. The results indicate that the majority, about two thirds, of the tractor accidents occur when exiting or entering the cab or when hitching or unhitching implements. The accident risk is high during these tasks because of short task time. Therefore, these tasks are important targets for safety promotion. As a result of this research, factors that predict higher accident risk on a farm were found. Farmers who report musculoskeletal disorders and who own many pieces of machinery appear to have a higher accident rate than farmers generally (adjusted RR=1.75, CI 1.14–2.69 and adjusted RR=2.34, CI 1.27– 4.31). According to crude analysis, delays in work and exhaustion were both statistically significantly more common among farmers reporting more accidents. These risks implicate deficiencies of safety management in agriculture. The organisational accident theory was applied for the first time to the research of accidents in agriculture or to microcompanies in general in this