Farming-Related Injury Mortality in New Mexico

L. Olson, L. Fullerton, C. Crandall and D. Sklar

NIOSH Education and Information Division

Objectives: To describe the epidemiology of farming injury-related occupational deaths in New Mexico.

Methods: We reviewed all injury-related occupational deaths occurring in New Mexico from 1980 to 1991 investigated by the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator (OMI). Data obtained from the OMI records included: ethnicity, age, gender, the presence of alcohol and/or drugs, injury location (rural vs. urban), agent of injury, and injury circumstances. The injury circumstances provided sufficient information to determine the industry in the majority of cases. Using a truncated data set, deaths from farming were compared to deaths in the other industries that accounted for the greatest number of deaths. In addition, autopsies are under review for further information concerning cause of death.

Data were entered into DBase III+ and analyzed using Epi-lnfo 5 and StatGraphics. Statistical significance was determined using regression and chi-squared analyses, and a p-value of < .05 was considered significant.

Results: There were 613 work-related deaths, of which 53 (8.6%) were in the farming industry. There were six industries that comprised over half of the total number of deaths (n=318; 51.8%): construction (n=72; 11.8%), oil/gas (n=65; 10.6%), farming (n=53; 8.6%), military (n=45; 7.3%), service (n=43; 7.0%), and public service (n=40; 6.5%).

Farming deaths were most common in summer (July to September; 34.0% of deaths). This was also true for construction (34.7%) and public service (35.0%). Farming deaths were least frequent in autumn (October to December; 13.2%), increasing in winter (January to March; 24.5%), spring (April to June; 28.3%), and summer. The number of deaths in the farming industry increased significantly with increasing age of the workers (p < .02). Decedents in the farming industry were older than decedents in other industries (p < .0001). Unlike other industries, the greatest proportion of deaths in the farming industry (30.2%) occurred among individuals 60+ years old.

There were no differences in gender distribution among the six industries. However, decedents varied significantly by race (p < .0001). A greater proportion of decedents in the farming industry were American Indian (15.1%) than in other industries, and over one-third (37.7%) of farming decedents were Hispanic.

Among the six industries represented, 13.6% of decedents tested positively for alcohol and 3.9% tested positively for illicit drugs. Industries with relatively high proportions of decedents who tested positively for alcohol (p < .03) included farming (20.0%) and service (24.3%). Thus, one in five decedents in the farming industry had alcohol present in their blood at the time of death.

The proportion of deaths occurring in rural areas was higher in the farming industry (86.8%) than any other industry except oil/gas (90.8%; p < .0001). The primary agent of death in the farming industry was "farm vehicle," the agent in one-third (34.0%) of deaths. Farming deaths also involved electricity (17.0%), falls (11.3%), animals (9.4%), other motor vehicles (9.4%), and machinery (7.6%). Nearly half of farming deaths (43.4%) involved some type of motor vehicle. Over one-fourth of deaths involved crushing injuries.

Conclusions: Work-related deaths in the farming industry account for a high proportion of the work-related deaths in New Mexico. Many of our findings are consistent with injury patterns nationwide and in other states. In New Mexico, farming decedents are primarily older males, involve disproportionate numbers of American Indians and Hispanics, and occur almost exclusively in rural areas. In particular, we are concerned with the finding that one in five farmers had alcohol present in their blood at the time of death. This points to the need for interdisciplinary cooperation between substance abuse and injury prevention experts to target farm workers for education about the risks of alcohol use in the farming industry.