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Quarterly
e-newsletter of AgInjuryNews
Winter 2024
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This is Volume 2, Issue 6 of the AgInjuryNews quarterly newsletter. We hope these will keep our users and collaborators better informed of ongoing initiatives and milestone achievements. As always, if you have any questions, please connect with us. | | |
SAFER AG Workshop - December 3–4, 2024 in Urbana, IL | |
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The 2024 SAFER AG Workshop is taking place in Urbana, IL, on December 3-4. As autonomous and AI-based technology rapidly transforms agriculture, this workshop provides a unique opportunity to discuss the impact of these advancements on farmworker safety and health. With over 1 million acres of farmland now operated by more than 500 autonomous machines globally, it is more crucial than ever to address safety, regulatory, and workforce implications.
This event will gather farm operators, academic experts, industry leaders, and government representatives to share insights and address knowledge gaps related to farm safety in the digital age. Topics include risk management, insurability, policy, workforce, and societal impacts.
Registration Information:
- Rate: $75
- Farmers-Only Rate: $20
- Registration Deadline: November 24, 2024
Secure your spot now to help shape the future of safe, sustainable farming.
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Save the Date:
2025 North American Agricultural Safety Summit - October 20–22, 2025 in San Antonio, TX
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The Agricultural Safety and Health Council of America (ASHCA) is pleased to announce the 2025 North American Agricultural Safety Summit, October 20–22, 2025, at Holiday Inn San Antonio-Riverwalk in San Antonio, Texas. ASHCA is a coalition of organizations, businesses, federal agencies, and safety professionals, all seeking to improve the health and safety of farmers, ranchers, and agricultural workers.
If you are interested in sponsoring or exhibiting, please contact ASHCA for full details at info@ashca.org.
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Save the Date:
2025 ISASH Conference - June 23 - 26, 2025 in Portland, ME
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Mark your calendars for the 2025 International Society for Agricultural Safety and Health (ISASH) Conference, set to take place in historic downtown Portland, Maine, June 23-26, 2025. The theme for the 2025 conference is "On Land and at Sea: Safety and Health for Farmers, Fishermen, and Forestry Workers." The conference will highlight the best of New England agriculture, forestry, and fishing and provide ample opportunity to learn and network. Incorporated in 1962 as the National Institute for Farm Safety, ISASH is an organization dedicated to the professional development of agricultural safety and health professionals, providing national and international leadership in preventing agricultural injuries and illnesses to the agricultural community. Look for conference details in the near future at the ISASH website.
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USDA Research Project - Risk Management Tool to Increase Farm Safety | |
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Project Background: VISIMO is a small business located in Pittsburgh, PA, that is working on a USDA-Funded SBIR Phase II award focused on increasing the safety and mitigating risk to small and mid-sized farms. The goal is to identify and assess the relationships between hazards facing agricultural workers using modern machine learning technology. To date, VISIMO has developed a prototype application for capturing real-world observations/data to gather insights into hazards on farms.
Requests for Data Collection: The VISIMO team is in search of data collectors and beta testers to support this research. Data are essential to train the model to recognize patterns and thus enable accurate analysis of risks on farms. As a data collector, individuals (farmers or third-party stakeholders) would record activities and hazards (and their status update) typical of the workflow on a farm. The tool allows users to template their daily/weekly workflow to facilitate rapid recurring data collection, and to input text descriptions for unique conditions. Data collection is estimated to take less than 5 minutes per instance, and shorter once templates are set up. Data are anonymized and only used for research purposes; all identifying information is also obfuscated. Records can be made on mobile devices in limited connectivity or on the computer. In addition to data collection, VISIMO is always looking for beta testers to experiment with the tool and offer additional perspectives that would be helpful to the broader agriculture industry. Our team is committed to helping agriculture workers through increased safety awareness and risk mitigation.
Link to Tool / Contact Information:
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We are thrilled to announce that Dr. Roger Aby, Ph.D., has joined the AgInjuryNews team!
Dr. Aby is a research scientist/engineer with 4 years of experience in agricultural engineering research focusing on safety and quality engineering. Given safety is the top priority in almost all industries, Dr. Aby combines his scientific knowledge with his research and problem-solving skills, big-picture mentality, and business acumen to provide effective methods to ensure (1) the safety and quality of products, and (2) products comply with all necessary and applicable standards and regulations.
Currently, Dr. Aby is a research specialist at the Marshfield Clinic Health System. His work focuses on enhancing agricultural safety and health, addressing emerging technologies and traditional farming practices. He evaluates safety standards for autonomous agricultural machinery, identifies ergonomic risks, and aims to address gaps in current guidelines. Additionally, he researches farm fatality trends to provide crucial insights into major causes of injury, supporting targeted interventions to improve worker safety. Ultimately, his goal is to create safer farming environments through improved safety standards, ergonomic solutions, and targeted safety initiatives.
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National Child Agricultural Safety Center Names New Director | |
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The National Children’s Center for Rural and Agricultural Health and Safety is nearing three decades of preventing injuries associated with the agricultural worksite, one of the nation’s most hazardous worksites and the only one where children of any age may be present.
Significant changes in agriculture and in rural communities require new approaches to safety, and leading the center into this evolving landscape is a new director, Andrea Swenson, Ph.D., associate research scientist, Marshfield Clinic Research Institute.
Swenson joined the National Children’s Center in 2019 with training in human development and family science. Swenson’s research focuses on intersections between family dynamics, individual development and social environments in agricultural and rural communities. She led the evaluation core for the center for the last 5 years and is currently principal investigator on a project researching barriers and motivators for use of the Agricultural Youth Work Guidelines, a tool to assist adults in assigning developmentally appropriate tasks for youth agricultural workers. In addition, Swenson leads projects on supporting youth health and safety curriculum for educators and family interactions with medical systems in rural communities.
“Having been raised on a dairy farm and having family members engaged in agriculture, I value the complex labor that farm families and farm workers engage in every day, and strive to improve the quality of programs designed to increase the safety and health of those working in agriculture,” Swenson said.
Swenson is succeeding Barbara Lee, Ph.D., the only director in the center’s 27-year history. Lee rallied national attention to the issue of childhood agricultural injuries in the 1990s.
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To view an updated listing of peer-reviewed manuscripts resulting from the work related to AgInjuryNews, please visit our Learn More page. If interested in citing the system/data, please use this:
Weichelt, B., Salzwedel, M., Heiberger, S., Lee, B.C. (2018). Establishing a Publicly Available National Database of U.S News Articles Reporting Agriculture-Related Injuries and Fatalities. American Journal of Industrial Medicine. 61(8), 667-674. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajim.22860
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The AgInjuryNews Core Team
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Bryan Weichelt Ph.D., M.B.A., Associate Research Scientist, NFMC | |
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Serap Gorucu Ph.D.,
Assistant Professor
University of Florida
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Juan Saucedo,
Research Coordinator,
CCEPH
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Sheena LaBossiere,
Canadian Agricultural Safety Association
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Christopher Wanat,
Health Educator,
NFMC
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Matt Pilz,
Senior Software Engineer, NFMC
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Roger Aby Ph.D.,
Research Specialist, NFMC
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Christopher Benny,
M.D. Candidate,
MCW-CW
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Contributors to this Issue
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In addition to our Core Team the following have contributed to this issue of the AIN Newsletter: Marie Fleisner and Scott Heiberger. Thank you! | | |
Funding support has been provided through the National Farm Medicine Center, the Marshfield Clinic Research Institute, the Agricultural Safety and Health Council of America (ASHCA), the Dean Emanuel Endowment, and the National Children's Center for Rural and Agricultural Health and Safety via the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH; grant number: U54 OH009568). |
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