The National Farm Injury Data Project

Transcription

1 The National Farm Injury Data Project The engine room for Farmsafe Australia farm safety programs by Lyn Fragar and Kirrily Pollock April 008 RIRDC Publication No 08/045 RIRDC Project No US-11A

2 008 Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation. All rights reserved. ISBN X ISSN The National Farm Injury Data Project The engine room for Farmsafe Australia farm safety programs Publication No. 08/045 Project No. US-11A The information contained in this publication is intended for general use to assist public knowledge and discussion and to help improve the development of sustainable regions. You must not rely on any information contained in this publication without taking specialist advice relevant to your particular circumstances. While reasonable care has been taken in preparing this publication to ensure that information is true and correct, the Commonwealth of Australia gives no assurance as to the accuracy of any information in this publication. The Commonwealth of Australia, the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (RIRDC), the authors or contributors expressly disclaim, to the maximum extent permitted by law, all responsibility and liability to any person, arising directly or indirectly from any act or omission, or for any consequences of any such act or omission, made in reliance on the contents of this publication, whether or not caused by any negligence on the part of the Commonwealth of Australia, RIRDC, the authors or contributors.. The Commonwealth of Australia does not necessarily endorse the views in this publication. This publication is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, all other rights are reserved. However, wide dissemination is encouraged. Requests and inquiries concerning reproduction and rights should be addressed to the RIRDC Publications Manager on phone Researcher Contact Details Kirrily Pollock Australian Centre for Agricultural Health and Safety University of Sydney PO Box 56 Moree NSW 400 Phone: Fax: kirrilyp@health.usyd.edu.au In submitting this report, the researcher has agreed to RIRDC publishing this material in its edited form. RIRDC Contact Details Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation Level, 15 National Circuit BARTON ACT 600 PO Box 4776 KINGSTON ACT 604 Phone: Fax: rirdc@rirdc.gov.au. Web: Published Electronically in April 008 ii

3 Foreword Accurate and timely data relating to farm, injury and illness is needed to provide industry and injury practitioners with information to prevent injuries. As there is no one data source that contains information on all farm-related injuries, the work by the National Farm Injury Data Centre collating all possible sources of information is a significant step forward in providing detailed information about farm-related injuries. This project has played a key role in providing the underpinning information for the Farm Health and Safety program of the Joint Research Venture in Farm Health and Safety with contributions from the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation, Grains Research and Development Corporation, Cotton Research and Development Corporation, Australian Wool Innovation Corporation, Sugar Research and Development Corporation, Meat and Livestock Australia and Horticulture Australia. The work carried out by the National Farm Injury Data Centre located at the Australian Centre for Agricultural Health and Safety collating the data sources that contain information about farm-related injuries is enabling agricultural industries to be informed about their safety issues and to develop appropriate strategies to combat farm-related injury. The reports produced by this project are an important addition to the available knowledge abut farm safety and will be used in the future. This project was funded by the Joint Research Venture in Farm Health and Safety, administered by the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (RIRDC). This report, an addition to RIRDC s diverse range of over 1800 research publications, forms part of our Rural People and Learning Systems R&D program, which aims to improve productivity, environmental sustainability and wellbeing in rural and regional Australia. Most of our publications are available for viewing, downloading or purchasing online through our website: downloads at purchases at Peter O Brien Managing Director Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation iii

4 Acknowledgments The whole team of personnel at the Australian Centre for Agricultural Health and Safety in Moree have contributed in many different and practical ways to the further development of the work of the National Farm Injury Data Centre, including the production of reports of this project. Their input ensures that reports and publications are relevant to the achievement of the aims of improving health and safety of the people in agriculture in Australia. Others who have played key technical and professional roles include Richard Franklin, the previous Director of the Data Centre, who maintains an active interest in the farm injury prevention field, James Harrison of The Centre for Injury Studies of Flinders University, and the personnel who make available many datasets through NSW Health. The Hunter New England Area Health Service provides core funding of the Australian Centre for Agricultural Health and Safety, and NSW Health provides infrastructure support that ensures maintenance of the National Farm Injury Data Centre. iv

5 Contents Foreword... iii Acknowledgments... iv Executive Summary... vi 1. Introduction The National Farm Injury Data Centre The National Farm Injury Data Collection Introduction The Collection Technical guidelines New developments Project outputs Reports produced directly in fulfilment of project objectives Reports produced with significant input from the National Farm Injury Data Collection Theses Publications Conference presentations Book chapters Newsletters circulated Resource packages The impact of the project the essential engine room National farm injury prevention programs Benchmarking farm safety performance Teaching and training Summary...8 References v

6 Executive Summary What the report is about Accurate and timely data relating to farm, injury and illness is needed to provide industry and injury practitioners with information to prevent injuries. Recently, there has been recognition of the need for safety benchmarking systems to be available in the context of farm business management. This project has set in place systems that will contribute to that endeavour. Who is the report targeted at? This project represents a key partnership between the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (RIRDC), other partners in the Joint Research Venture in Farm Health and Safety and the Australian Centre for Agricultural Health and Safety that has maintained and enhanced the National Farm Injury Data Collection to produce a range of reports that have supported key national and industry programs aimed at improving the health and safety of those whose life and work is in agriculture in Australia. Background It is well recognised that the occupational health and safety performance of the agriculture industries in Australia can be improved, and that injury associated with farm work is incurring unnecessary costs to individual farm businesses, to the industry by higher than necessary workers compensation premiums and to the Australian healthcare system and taxpayers through medical and hospital care for treatment of preventable injury. As more safety and injury prevention activity has been set in place, so have the information needs of the agriculture industries become more sophisticated. At the commencement of this project it was recognised that reports and profiles needed to be presented in ways that were more meaningful to the users of the data farmers, policy makers, educators and others. It was further recognised that improvements were needed in relation to the timeliness of access to farm deaths and serious injury data a key challenge using the previous data sources. This has been undertaken by accessing the National Coroners Information System, recognising that this system is in its infancy, with many data access problems yet to be resolved, and by accessing a media monitoring service to provide timely information that is already available to the public. Aims/Objectives The specific aims of the project were to: 1. maintain and enhance the National Farm Injury Data Collection, and to: - produce regular National Reports (Newsletter) on farm deaths, injury and illness - produce profiles of health and safety in industries and states. develop and trial benchmarks for OHS performance in the Agricultural/Horticulture Industries 3. provide support to Farmsafe Australia Strategies. Methods used There is no single dataset that provides suitable base for monitoring injury and traumatic deaths occurring on farms across Australia. Even the data collection that is all-inclusive, the Australian Bureau of Statistics database of deaths by Cause of Death, does not indicate the location of the injury event; hence the many on-farm fatalities of people whose occupation is not farmer, farm manager or agricultural labourer cannot be identified. Furthermore that system does not adequately define the women who are injured or at risk of farm-related injury. In order to overcome the problems associated with the lack of data several strategies have been adopted; - Systematic use of a range of data sources - Identification of the limitations of each data source - Support of programs that have data collection components - Promulgation of data standards - Dissemination of research results. Data is obtained from several sources because no one source can provide the required scope, coverage and items of interest necessary for total farm injury surveillance. vi

7 Results/Key findings Key outputs from the project include a series of chart books The Facts series - Occupational Health and Safety Risk in the Australian Beef Cattle Industry The facts No 1. - Occupational Health and Safety Risk in the Australian Poultry Industry The facts No - Occupational Health and Safety Risk in the Australian Horticulture Industries The facts No 3, - Machinery Injury on Australian Farms The facts No 4 - Injury on Australian Farms The facts No 5. - Pesticides and Human Health in Australia The facts No 6. - Injury on New South Wales Farms The facts No 7. Three others are in press and will be published within a subsequent project: - All-terrain vehicle injury on Australian farms The facts No 8 - Occupational Health and Safety Risk in the Australian Dairy Industry The facts No 9 - The safety of older farmers in Australia The facts No 10. Other reports have been critical to further development of farm safety programs in Australia. These relate to falls injury in agriculture, ATV deaths and serious injury and benchmarking of farm health and safety in Australian agriculture. Implications for relevant stakeholders A significant investment has been made by governments and agricultural industries in the defining the nature and extent of injury and death associated with agricultural activity, setting priorities for programs, developing programs, developing resources and disseminating information. A number of industries and farm business management groups have recognised the need for benchmarks to be established for safety and safety management that will set industry standards that are achievable, and that can signal to individual businesses and to industry groups how well they are performing in comparison with each other and to the industry as a whole. National benchmarks for industry performance are based on workers compensation claims and demonstrate a relatively poor position for agricultural industries in comparison with all industries in Australia. A growing number of education and training courses are using publications produced by the National Farm Injury Data Centre and published by RIRDC. These include those provided by the Australian Centre for Agricultural Health and Safety: University of Sydney Medical students in the Doctor and Community semester. General Practice Registrar training in workshops hosted by the Australian Centre for Agricultural Health and Safety University of New England Grains Course in the Managing Grains Production Safety unit NSW Public Health Officers rural training unit. Recommendations The National Farm Injury Data Project has continued the maintenance of the National Farm Injury Data Collection and its use in providing relevant and timely information to the agriculture industries and the network of agencies that share an interest in improving the health and safety of the people in Australian agriculture with essential information and data. In addition to the formal reports that have been published in print and electronic form, the National Farm Injury Data Centre personnel respond on a routine and daily basis to information requests from the media, from industry and government policy makers, educators and trainers, students and service providers. In addition consideration of the number and nature of those downloading information from the Farmsafe Australia website indicates that the information is being used by a range of other individuals and organisations. The number of users, who are utilising the material for education and training and for consultancy, would indicate that resources are being used quite widely. vii

8 1. Introduction Injury surveillance is a process of collecting data items of interest that relate to injury events, collating them in such a way so as to be meaningful and disseminating the information to those individuals or organisations who are best placed to actively reduce the injury burden. Surveillance is therefore distinct from injury research which requires active data gathering at the site of injury and which is necessary to examine causes of injury in detail. Injury surveillance provides the broad-brush strokes of the injury picture, it allows for priority setting and program development, injury surveillance does not generally provide counter measure information. The process of injury surveillance goes beyond the process of acquiring data, onto the manipulation of the data and its ultimate dissemination. The purpose of the National Farm Injury Data Collection Project therefore goes beyond collection to collation and dissemination of information (Stallones, cited in Fragar et al, 003). The early work of the National Farm Injury Data Centre was instrumental in drawing attention to farmers organisations, research organisations and government the specific safety problems of the industry, and the Data Centre has been undertaking farm injury surveillance for the past nine years in response to their information needs. Farm injury surveillance has been seen as critical in the instigation of prevention programs by the network of organisations under the Farmsafe Australia umbrella. Data has been used to define the nature and scale of the farm injury problem in Australia, in states and in specific industries, to identify priority hazards of high risk that need specific intervention and more recently to define and report on farm safety benchmarks. Farmsafe Australia Inc. is the national association of organisations that share the objective of improving the health and safety of the people in agriculture. Details of the member organisations and the range of programs being implemented by the network is to be found on its website, As more safety and injury prevention activity has been set in place, so have the information needs of the agriculture industries become more sophisticated. At the commencement of this project it was recognised that reports and profiles needed to be presented in ways that were more meaningful to the users of the data farmers, policy makers, educators and others. It was further recognised that improvements were needed in relation to the timeliness of access to farm deaths and serious injury data a key challenge using the previous data sources. This has been undertaken by accessing the National Coroners Information System, recognising that this system is in its infancy, with many data access problems yet to be resolved, and by accessing a press monitoring service to provide timely information that is already available to the public. A more recent move has been the recognition of the need for safety benchmarking systems to be available in the context of farm business management, and this project has set in place systems that will contribute to that endeavour. The specific aims of the project were: 1. To maintain and enhance the National Farm Injury Data Collection, and: - produce regular National Reports (Newsletter) on farm deaths, injury and illness - produce profiles of health and safety in industries and states. To develop and trial benchmark for OHS performance in the Agricultural/Horticulture Industries 3. To provide support to Farmsafe Australia Strategies 1

9 . The National Farm Injury Data Centre The National Farm Injury Data Centre was established by the Australian Centre for Agricultural Health and Safety in the mid 1990s in response to a growing demand for improved information and data about the nature and extent of the injury problem on Australian farms. Concerns were expressed in a number of different contexts concern for human health and wellbeing, concern for the cost associated with injury and injury compensation claims, concern about the relatively poor performance of the agriculture industries in the occupational health and safety (OHS) regulatory framework, interest in safety as an integral part of good farm business management. The Data Centre is funded through part of the core funding of the Australian Centre for Agricultural Health and Safety by Hunter New England Area Health Service and by Research Infrastructure funding through NSW Health. In addition, many of its reports have been produced with specific project funding from a range of agencies, amongst which the Farm Health and Safety Joint Research Venture has been a major funding contributor, through the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (RIRDC). Many of the reports of the Data Centre are to be found on the RIRDC website The Data Centre has worked to establish and maintain the National Farm Injury Data Collection, and to ensure that people are recruited and skills developed so as to ensure that requests for information and reports can be filled in a timely and careful manner. In addition to producing specific reports, the Data Centre, through maintenance of the Data Collection, has supplied data, comments and advice to a range of organisations and individuals. These have included each states OHS authority, Worksafe Australia, the media, Federal, state and territory politicians, research organisations including, Monash University Accident Research Centre, The University of New England Rural Development Centre, ABARE, university & school students, farmers and community groups including the Country Women s Association, state and national farmer groups, rural rehabilitation service providers, rural educators and medical educators.

10 3. The National Farm Injury Data Collection 3.1 Introduction There is no single dataset that provides suitable base for monitoring injury and traumatic deaths occurring on farms across Australia. Even the data collection that is all-inclusive, the Australian Bureau of Statistics database of deaths by Cause of Death, does not indicate the location of the injury event; hence the many on-farm fatalities of people whose occupation is not farmer, farm manager or agricultural labourer cannot be identified. Furthermore that system does not adequately define the women who are injured or at risk of farm-related injury. In order to overcome the problems associated with the lack of data several strategies have been adopted; - Systematic use of a range of data sources, - Identification of the limitations of each data source, - Support of programs that have data collection components, - Promulgation of data standards, - Dissemination of research results. Data is obtained from several sources because no-one source can provide the required scope, coverage and items of interest necessary for total farm injury surveillance. Figure 1 below displays the scope associated with severity of injury ascertainment by various methods of surveillance. Figure 3.1. The relationship of the spread of severity of injuries to the method of cases ascertainment Adapted from: Stallones 1963 (As reprinted 1996) The National Farm Injury Data Collection system demonstrates a number of important characteristics of a useful surveillance system: 1. Data collection is systematic, broad and linked directly to the development, dissemination and utility of an intervention. The end users of the datasets are actively involved in defining the type of data being collected, the manner of collation of data to provide information, which may be amalgamated and used to produce useful reports.. Data are used to evaluate and refine hazard profiles. For example, while we know from the OHS literature that vibrating machinery can cause white finger, we know from our data that this is not a major issue in Australian agriculture. Therefore, our intervention programs do not focus on this issue as a priority. 3

11 3. Data are used in a variety of contexts: - Prevention setting priorities, justifying resource allocation, development of interventions - Training - Defining research priorities and assisting in defining risk factors. Surveillance of agricultural injuries is a precursor to an effective program to reduce death and disability. Data gathering does not in itself serve to reduce fatalities or morbidity. Data gathering does allow us to use our prevention dollar more wisely, to evaluate our effectiveness and it alerts us to changing patterns of disease and injury. The following sections describe data that constitutes the National Farm Injury Data Collection. It is important to note that utility of one data source is dependent upon a range of factors including, scope, coverage, collection methodology including sampling frames, exclusion and inclusion criteria. Importantly utility is primarily defined by the needs of the user. The needs of individual institutions for data will of course vary. For example workers compensation data are going to have significant use for information about claims settling rates, while this is not data needed to drive prevention programs. Fragar and Coleman (1996) published a paper defining data needs for Farmsafe Australia and much of the utility discussion in this paper revolves around these needs. 3. The Collection The following information is accurate at the time of publication. The collection is an on-going body of work that as time goes by will have information both added and removed from the collection. This by no means the sum total of all collection in Australia, it is the collection known by the National Farm Injury Data Centre as providing information about farm-related injuries in Australia. In this project period two additional data sources were made available to the National Farm injury Data Centre the National Coroners Information System, and a press monitoring service. The use of these sources will be discussed. 4

12 a. Standards and definitions Data Source Description Location International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, Tenth Revision. Australian Modification (IDC-10-AM) Farm Injury Optimal Dataset. Version.0 Fragar L, &Pollock 005 DRAFT 001 Census Dictionary, ABS Catalogue No (001) Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 004. Rural, regional and remote health: a guide to remoteness classifications. AIHW cat. no. PHE 53. Canberra: AIHW. Type of Occurrence Classification Scheme - Worksafe Australia Version.0 (1999) National Health Data Dictionary - Institutional Health Care - Version AIHW National directory of data collections in health, welfare and housing. AIHW 1996 Statistical Concepts Reference Library ABS Cat no (000). National Injury Surveillance and Prevention Project. NISPP Coding Manual Farm Injury in Australia- options for Improvement in collection and dissemination. R. Coleman 1995 Statistical Geography Volume 1 Australian Standard Geographical Classification (ASGC) ABS (1996) National Minimum Dataset for Injury Surveillance- National Injury Surveillance Unit. Version.0 (1998) Victorian Health System Injury Data Bases - Utility for the Dairying Industry in the Identification of Dairy Farm Injury - L. Day (1995) Monash University Accident Research Centre Internationally recognised classification of diseases and injury. Used for ABS deaths data and Australian hospitals in-patient data. Report - Data Items and classification system for farm injury surveillance. Definitions of census and coding classifications Report - Statistical Local Area (SLA) classification system for assign rurality to zones Report - National standard for coding and classifying occupational injury Report - Data items and definitions to describe institutional health care in Australia Report - A directory of data collections and organisations ABS concepts, classifications and statistical standards - which includes ASCO (Occupation classification), ANZSIC Industry classification. Coding guidelines for Emergency Department injury data Report - Data items and classification system for farm injury surveillance, plus draft roles for state and federal authorities nsf/home/M ethods,%0classifi cation Report - Definitions of SLA, LGA, SD boundaries Report - Data Items and classification system for injury surveillance. Report - Analysis of injury source utility for the dairy industry. 5

13 b. Australian agriculture Data Source Description Location Year Book Australia 006 Agriculture (006). ABS Cat 3101, Estimates of latest statistics on industry status, employment, characteristics of Australian farms, irrigation Agricultural Commodities, Australia, Cat no ABS, 005 Canberra. Directory of Agricultural and Rural Statistics 001 (001) ABS, Cat No Ag Stats - Small Area Agricultural Commodity Data 001 ABS (003) Farm Surveys report 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996,1997 Agriculture ABS (1998) Characteristics of Australian Farms - 31 March 1993 ABS Cat No Agstats ABS. Estimates for the main commodities collected in the Agricultural Survey. Detailed statistics on crops, livestock and livestock products, land use and industry and size characteristics of farms. Information on sources of agricultural and rural statistics in the public and private sectors. Electronic Database - Electronic copy of Australian Agricultural Statistics providing regional profile statistics for all States and Territories for the years to Reports - Financial Performance of Australian Farms - ABARE Report - Hard Copy of Australian Agriculture production figures Report - Hard Copy ABS report of selected agricultural statistics broken down by state Electronic Database - Computer database of small area agricultural data for Australia. c. Agricultural population Data Source Description Location 001Censusof Population and Housing ABS, People employed in Agriculture Data cubes Breakdowns of farm residents by industry, occupation, gender and age ACHAS/ ABS ABS Labour Force Australia (005). ABS Cat No (1994) Report - ABS labour force summary survey published quarterly ABS Agricultural Census data The Micro-Dynamics of Change in Australian Agriculture , (004). ABS Cat No People in Farming. ABARE 98.6 (1998) Report -.Breakdown of agricultural industry data by state Report Change in agricultural industries and population. Comparison of Agricultural Census data over time Report - A survey of broadacre and dairy industries defining the agricultural population working and living on Australian farms 6

14 d. Deaths data Data Source Description Location National Coroners Information System Electronic data base of deaths investigated by MUNCII state coroners in all states since 001 Media Monitors Database of cases reported by Media Monitor by comprehensive monitoring of print media for farm related deaths and serious injury ABS Mortality Data ( ). Electronic Database - All rural fatalities for the 10 years, ABS information including occupation and ICD code. HOIST NOSI 1 and NOSI Databases Erlich et al. (1993) Scandinavian Journal of Work Environment and Health NSW WorkCover Authority Fatalities surveillance system (1996) Suicide in rural NSW (1995) Causes of Death, 004 (006). ABS Cat no Injury Deaths, Australia, 00 (004), Aust Institute of Health & Welfare Farm Health and Safety Bulletin (Occasional Reports) Occupational Health and Safety Authority - (Now HSO) Victoria. Fatalities Summaries Mortality in the Barwon Health Service - First Draft - Northern districts Public Health Unit. (Undated) Database of fatal and nonfatal workers, compensation claims from 1994 by sex, age, agent, mechanism. Report - NOHSC study of coroners' records examining work-related farm injury. Electronic Database - Database of age, sex, date of injury, agent, activity and mechanism of death. Continuous data Report - re: Suicide in Rural NSW from the Standing Committee on social issues. Legislative Council. Limited Occupational data Report - All deaths in Australia by ICD code, age, cause, years Report - All injury deaths in Australia by ICD code, indicators, state, age, cause, year 00 Reports - Occasional Report by Victorian HSO regarding both fatal and non-fatal injury. Reports - Hardcopy of fatalities summary data Jan December Report - Examination of death rates by occupation for a range of health issues. Needs work before it will become useful. gov.au Mortality in the North West Health Service - Northern districts Public Health Unit. (1994) Queensland fatal Work-Related Farm Incidents. Source Division of Workplace Health and Safety. (1996) Male Farm Road Fatalities 1988, 1990, 199, 1994, 1996 Work-related traumatic fatalities, (1998) Franklin R, Mitchell R, Driscoll T, Fragar L Farmrelated fatalities in Australia, , NOHSC & RIRDC. Moree Report - Extremely useful planning document for delivery of farmer health programs. Small numbers in samples have led to wide confidence intervals. Analysis needs to be done for State and Australia. Report - Hard Copy Output of Fatal Farm Injuries Electronic Database - Database of road fatalities to Males, includes information about accident, injury, demographics and circumstances surrounding fatality. Report - Comprehensive examination of work-related fatalities in Australia Report - Comprehensive examination of farm-related fatalities in Australia. 7

15 e. Hospital based data Data Source Description Location NSW Inpatients Statistics Collection (HOIST) NSW Electronic Databases -A collection of datasets Health, ( ) kept by NSW health HOIST Australian Hospitals Inpatients Statistics, AIHW and National Centre for Injury Studies, Flinders University Hospital separations due to injury and poisoning, Australia (006) NISU Rural Injury Prevention Program Accident and Emergency presentations - Farm Injury Victorian Injury Surveillance System - Latrobe Valley Accident and Emergency presentations - Farm Injury Data on Australian hospital admissions available by request. Report - Injuries by age and sex, remoteness of usual residence, length of stay in hospital, external causes of injury, and other characteristics. Patterns of injury morbidity and the burden it imposes on the Australian community Electronic Database cases of A/E presentations from NW of NSW. Detailed description of demographics, agent, activity, industry, body part and injury type Electronic Database cases of A/E presentations from Latrobe Valley VIC. Detailed description of demographics, agent, activity, industry, body part and injury type Flinders University (contact James Harrison) ACHAS. Victorian Hospital Separations (On-going) On farm Injury Requiring Hospitalisation - Central West Health Region - G. Robson (Undated) QLD Hospital Separations Data. National Injury Surveillance Unit - Emergency Department Presentations. Farm Injury Subset of 16,000 emergency department presentations Health Wiz - National Social Health Statistical Database CD-ROM Version 5.1 Needs and Opportunities for improved surveillance of brain injury. A progress report AIHW 1999 Accidental Poisoning of preschool children from nonmedical substances, Australia. AIHW 000 Need and Opportunities for improved surveillance of burns. AIHW 1998 NSW Health hospital separations , Emergency Department Visits and special surveys Electronic Database - Inpatient data coded to ICD-9. Enhanced by special purpose survey in 11 rural hospitals Unpublished Report - Summary Data re: 168 cases of farm injury hospitalisation Electronic Database - Confidential material, released in Electronic Database - Confidential material, Electronic Database - Hospital Based Statistics Report - This report outlines a range of issues that affect the availability, quality and utilisation of data on traumatic brain injury. Report - Information about child poisoning in Australia Report - Investigation of the needs and opportunities for improved surveillance of burns was motivated by a number of factors. Electronic Databases -A collection of datasets kept by NSW health VIC Health and MUARC. HOIST 8

16 f. Workers compensation based data, and information reported to OHS authorities Data Source Description Location NOSI 1 and Databases, Department of Employment & Workplace Relations Database allows analysis of data for national workers compensation claims from 1994 by sex, age, agent, mechanism. Limit to employed workers in agriculture. Comparative Performance Monitoring Seventh Report (005), Part D & E. Dept Employment & Workplace Relations Department of Employment and Workplace Relations Compendium of Workers Compensation Statistics Australia January 006 A Statistical Profile of Occupational Health and Safety in Victoria, HSO, October 1995 Employment Injuries in agriculture and forestry. Workers Compensation Statistics. New South Wales 1991/9 Occupational Health and Safety Statistics in Agriculture - New South Wales - Data Analysis and Research Unit - WorkCover Authority July (Confidential WorkCover Data not for release) Manual handling Injuries and occupational overuse syndrome. Workers Compensation Statistics New South Wales 1990/91 Occupational Health and safety Performance Overviews, selected Industries- Issue No.9 Agriculture and Services to Agriculture. Worksafe Australia. Health and Safety of Workers in the rural industry. Division of Workplace Health and Safety. Government Statisticians Office. Report of the Queensland Employee Injury Database (Not Dates) Workers Compensation Board of Queensland - Industry Statistics - Farming and Pastoral 199/93 Best Estimates of the Magnitude of health effects of occupational exposure to hazardous substances 1996 National Catalogue of State and Industry Based OHS Data NOHSC 1997 National OHS Improvement Framework (000) Data on OHS in Australia. NOHSC 000 Report - Benchmarking analysis of workers compensation data from all states and New Zealand. Report comparative national workers compensation statistics Report - Industry figures for all industries in Victoria. Useful as a comparison document. Limited agricultural fatalities data Report - Hard copy WorkCover Authority agriculture statistics. Useful document, broken down by commodity / industry. Other breakdowns available on request. Unpublished Report - Hardcopy analysis of priority industries for intervention. Breakdowns occupation and industry group. Unfortunately breakdowns too broad to be of great value. Report - Hard copy WorkCover Authority agriculture statistics. Useful document, broken down by broad industry. Report - Produced with input from the National Farm Injury Data Collection Project. Hard Copy agricultural injury / illness statistics for occurrences requiring 5 days or more off work. Unpublished Report - Hardcopy summary report of vastly under-reported injury database. Data has been superseded by Keith Ferguson s special surveys. Report - Hardcopy injury cost breakdowns by body part, injury type and compensation region. Industry is not coded to ASIC or ANZIC. Report - Hard copy report about health effects Report - Catalogue of Data sources Report - This report describes the National Improvement Framework by OHS stakeholders Report - This report provides an overview of What is known regarding OHS in Australia as described by existing and accessible national data collections. 9

17 g. Research and special data collections Data Source Description Location National Health Survey National survey of self-reported health status HOIST, NSW Health NSW Health Survey NSW Survey of self-reported health status HOIST, NSW Health Farm Survey of workplace Injury / Illness. Keith Ferguson, Division of workplace Health and Safety. QLD 1995 Report - Prospective / retrospective survey of injury illness factors to support activity planning of Queensland FarmSafe. Coded using early version of National Farm Injury Data Collection - Optimal Dataset. The Economics of Farm Safety in Australian Agriculture- Griffith GR and Low J. NSW Agriculture. (1994) Report Farm Safety Survey. Sa Rural Industry Training Committee Inc. Dr. MC Brown. Dec 1990 A 1-month study of farm work related injury based on collections from Hospital and Medical Practices in the Callide-Dawson Region of Central Queensland. Chater AB & Ferguson KH. (1994) Cdata96 (1998) Report - Injury type and Cost impacts of farm injury in three rural shires of NSW. Report - Survey of members of the United Farmers and Stockowners. Retrospective query of injury occurrence of 1 months, notable that annual medically treated injury rate per 100 farms = Report - Prospective study of Hospital and medical practitioner records relating to farm injury. - Excellent commodity specific reporting based upon earlier draft of optimal dataset as per Ferguson. Electronic Database - This is an electronic copy of information collected in the 1996 Australia population census h. Reportable disease data Data Source Description Location Australia s notifiable disease status, (003) Communicable Diseases Intelligence - Commonwealth Department of Human Services and Health. Vol 18. No. Annual Reports- Rates of Notifiable Diseases by statistical division. Reporting mechanism of zoonoses. National Notifiable Disease Surveillance System Communicable Disease Intelligence National Leptospirosis Surveillance Reports Nos 13(004), 1(003),11(00),10 (001), 9(000) Website - with up-to date information about communicable disease. Reports on National Leptospirosis cases health.gov.a u/pubs/cdi/c dihtml.htm htp:// alth.qld.gov.a u/qhpss/pdf/l eptospirosis/r eports/surveil lance_report i. Overseas data Data Source Description Location Surveillance of Occupational Injuries and Diseases in Agriculture in Finland. Saarimaki P. International Workshop on Agricultural Health and Safety. Iowa 1996 Report - Hard Copy summary data regarding cause, outcome and cost of occupational injuries in agriculture. Useful activity classifications. Fatal Farm Injuries in Canada (1997) Report - Farm-related fatalities in Canada Fatal Injuries in farming, forestry and horticulture (000) Report - Describes farm-related fatalities in the UK 10

18 j. Other Data Source Description Location NW Pesticide Blood Screening Program Electronic Database- Database of Cholinesterase Screenings for Organophosphate and carbamate exposure.. NSW Rural Hearing Conservation Program. Australian Centre for Agricultural Health and Safety. Poisons Information Centres in states Australian Injury Prevention Bulletin - NISU. Various Editions The Health and Safety of South Australian Farmers, Farm Families and Farm Workers Rural Injury In Central Queensland 000 The Health and Safety of Australian Farming Community. 000 Electronic Database - Collection of hearing screenings collected at agricultural field days since 199 n=4000. Calls to Poisons Information Centres regarding agricultural chemicals Reports - Hard copy data reports re: injury issues. Important data re suicide Report - A report describing the health and safety of South Australian farmers, families and workers. Report - A report profile injury presenting to Emergency Departments and GP surgeries in central Queensland Report - A report bringing together all sources of information to paint a picture of the health and safety of Australian farmers Poisons Information Centres 3.3 Technical guidelines Technical guidelines guide the internal use of key data sources and interpretation of data reports. These TechNotes summarise specifications, associated datasets, methods of data extraction and use, limitations and utility for farm injury prevention. The following TechNotes are in use or are in preparation: TechNote 1: TechNote : TechNote 3: TechNote 4: TechNote 5: TechNote 6: TechNote 7: TechNote 8: Using the National Coroners Information System Using Media Monitors Using ICD10 and hospital data Using ABS Cause of Death Data Using NOSI (OHS) Data The Farm Injury Optimal Dataset The Q Fever Optimum Dataset AgZones of Australia of importance to health 3.4 New developments 1. National Coroners Information System For this project the National Farm injury Data Centre piloted the use of the National Coroners Information System (NCIS) as a key source of information regarding traumatic deaths occurring on Australian farms. Prior to 000, information held by coroners in relation to all deaths referred to state coroners was only held in hard paper copies. Any attempt to use the data about injury deaths necessitated researchers examining each file and coding the information into databases. The last comprehensive analysis of farm-related injury deaths used such a method, in association with the research team of the National Occupational Health and Safety Commission and funded by the RIRDC (Franklin et al, 000). The National Coroners Information System is a national internet based data storage and retrieval system for Australian coronial cases. Information about every death reported to an Australian coroner since July 000 (January 001 for Queensland) is stored within the system, providing a valuable 11

19 hazard identification and death prevention tool for coroners and research agencies. The NCIS has a primary role to assist coroners in their role as death investigators, by providing them with the ability to review previous coronial cases that may be similar in nature to current investigations, enhancing their ability to identify and address systematic hazards within the community. Further information about the NCIS is found the on website: Accessing the NCIS to extract all farm injury deaths is not a straightforward activity, for a number of reasons: - Delays in data being put into the data system and delays in accessing relevant information - Difficulties in identifying farm-relating injury cases as no single coding filed can identify all farm injured cases - Additional data being entered in relation to cases without a system to advise when new information is entered. - No Queensland data for July-December 000 The information held in the database is often inadequate to describe the key causal factors required for use of the Farm Injury optimal Dataset. The key difficulties relate to information about the type of farming enterprise (agricultural industry) and the work phase if work related i.e. what job was being undertaken at the time of injury event leading to death. Notwithstanding these challenges, an extraction of cases of on-farm deaths has been undertaken for the years 001 to 004, and a full report is in preparation (Pollock and Fragar, 006) In the years 198 to 1984 there were a total of 3 work-related on-farm fatalities identified by accessing coronial files (Erlich et al, 1993), representing a rate of 19.4 per persons per year employed in agriculture. Table 3.1 indicates the number of farm-related traumatic deaths that were extracted in the previous fatality study of the National Farm injury Data Centre for the years (Franklin et al, 000) and the numbers extracted using the National Coroners Information System for Table 3.1: Number of on-farm injury deaths on Australian farms in two surveys Year Number workrelated deaths Number bystander and other farm injury deaths Total deaths including unknown work status Number agricultural establishments* Rate farm deaths per agricultural establishments E E E # * Agricultural establishments producing an EVAO > $5000 pa E = estimates as changed definitions for value of production # Most likely under-enumerated, with further cases to be added. It should be noted that differences in the rates between the two survey periods are most likely related to the different case ascertainment method, and a conclusion cannot be made that OHS performance has improved in the period between surveys. The important outcome is that the NCIS can be used to produce more timely data, and so long as similar methods of data extraction are used, this can form the basis of an ongoing surveillance program for farm deaths reporting. 1

20 The data allows further analysis of injury by the following that are being presented in the full report: - Age - Gender - State - Agent of injury - Season - Time of day The series of chart books produced earlier in the project period will be updated where relevant using the more recent deaths data.. Press Monitoring Service The National Farm injury Data Centre began using a media monitoring service, Media Monitors Australia Pty Ltd, in October 004 with the aim of providing rapid advice of on-farm deaths and serious injury that is reported in local, state and national print media. Search terms that were piloted and are now in use are: 1. accident* AND (farm*, agricultur*, grower, producer, horticultur*). injur* AND (farm*, agricultur*, grower, producer, horticultur*) 3. death* AND (farm*, agricultur*, grower, producer, horticultur*) 4. fatal* AND (farm*, agricultur*, grower, producer, horticultur*) 5. safety AND (farm*, agricultur*, grower, producer, horticultur*) 6. killed AND (farm*, agricultur*, grower, producer, horticultur*) 7. dies AND (farm*, agricultur*, grower, producer, horticultur*) 8. OR (Australian Centre for Agricultural Health and Safety) 9. NFIDC OR (National Farm Injury Data Centre) 10. Farmsafe OR FarmSafe OR (Farm Safe) OR (Farm-Safe) Table 3. provides a summary of articles that were captured and provided to the Data Centre for the calendar year 005. These media articles have been used by the Data Centre and the Australian Centre for Agricultural Health and Safety for the following: - Alerts to cases of death to be accessed on the National Coroners Information System for inclusion in the farm deaths register - Provision of information on the circumstances of deaths not yet available on the NCIS. This information is not formally included until validated. - Advice to farm injury prevention programs on factors of interest surrounding deaths and serious injury associated with specific programs eg ATV injury, child injury. Of interest is the number of media pickups following the publication of the RIRDC-funded farm injury fact booklet series. 13

21 Table 3.: Number of print articles by field of interest and issue captured by the press monitoring program Field of interest Issue Number articles Number deaths reported Number serious injuries reported Agricultural industries Beef Q fever 5 Beef cattle handling Sheep and wool 6 1 Dairy 0 7 Grain - harvest 1 1 Pesticides 17 Machinery and equipment ROPS 4 PTO 16 1 Tractors Auger 3 3 Hay baler Slasher 6 1 ATV Motorbike Welder/Workshop 13 6 Forklift 1 1 Post-rammer 3 1 Wool press 1 1 Truck/transport Ute/Farm Vehicle 6 4 Bulldozer/Earth Moving 3 1 Cherry picker Fertiliser Spreader 5 5 Banana machinery 3 3 General Farm Machinery 3 4 Other hazards Electricity 1 Lightning 1 1 Tree Struck by Object 5 5 Drowning Falls Helmets 0 Skin cancer Asthma 1 Hearing Mental health 3 Flowing grain 1 Airplane & helicopter Dog 3 1 Horse 3 3 Fire 6 Gudair OJD vaccine Programs Farmsafe 5 AgrAbility 1 Child safety 46 General Farm Safety 51 Farm Safety Week 4 Publications RIRDC Safety Fact Series 6 TOTAL

22 4. Project outputs The following outputs have been produced by the project over the three years Reports produced directly in fulfilment of project objectives These reports have been produced by project funded personnel to meet the objectives defined by the project: - Franklin RC, Thomas, PR, Fragar LJ The Health and Safety of New South Wales Farmers, Farm Families and Farm Workers. Australian Centre for Agricultural Health and Safety, Moree and Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation, Canberra. - Franklin RC, Thomas, PR, Fragar LJ Falls in Agriculture. Australian Centre for Agricultural Health and Safety, Moree and Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation, Canberra. - Fragar L, Pollock, K All-terrain Vehicle Injury on Australian Farms Update 004. Australian Centre for Agricultural Health and Safety. Farmsafe Australia website. - Fragar L, Pollock, K All-terrain Vehicle Injury on Australian Farms Update 005. Australian Centre for Agricultural Health and Safety. Farmsafe Australia website. - Fragar, L. J., Stiller, L. and Thomas, P Child Injury on Australian Farms The facts No 5. 05/047, Australian Centre for Agricultural Health and Safety and Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation. - Fragar, L. J., Thomas, P. and Morton, C Injury on New South Wales Farms- The facts No 7. 05/048, Australian Centre for Agricultural Health and Safety and Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation - Fragar, L. J. and Thomas, P Machinery Injury on Australian Farms The facts No 4. 05/050, Australian Centre for Agricultural Health and Safety and Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation - Fragar, L. J., Pollock, K. and Morton, C Occupational Health and Safety Risk in the Australian Beef Cattle Industry - The facts No 1. 05/046, Australian Centre for Agricultural Health and Safety and Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation. - Fragar, L. J., Pollock, K. and Morton, C Occupational Health and Safety Risk in the Australian Poultry Industry- The facts No, 05/05, Australian Centre for Agricultural Health and Safety and Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation. - Fragar, L. J., Pollock, K. and Morton, C Occupational Health and Safety Risk in the Australian Horticulture Industries- The facts No 3, 05/049, Australian Centre for Agricultural Health and Safety and Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation - Fragar, L. J., Sankaran, B. and Thomas, P Pesticides and Human Health in Australia The facts No 6, 05/051, Australian Centre for Agricultural Health and Safety and Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation. - Temperley J, Pollock K, Fragar L Benchmarking farm health and safety for Australian agriculture preliminary paper. Australian Centre for Agricultural Health and Safety - Fragar, L. J., Pollock, K, Morton, C, Day L Occupational Health and Safety Risk in the Australian Dairy Industry - The facts No 9. 05/046, Australian Centre for Agricultural Health and Safety and Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (In press). - Fragar, L. J., Pollock, K. and Morton, C All-terrain vehicle injury on Australian farms The facts No 8. 05/046, Australian Centre for Agricultural Health and Safety and Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (In press). 15