Work-related injuries and ill health in agriculture - Summary

• The estimated prevalence rate of self-reported work-related ill health in 2008/09 was between 2100 and 4000 per 100 000 people working in the last 12 months, according to the Labour Force Survey (LFS).
• The incidence rate of reportable non-fatal injury was 2200 per 100 000 workers (2.2%) in 2007/08 (three-year average), based on LFS results. This was statistically significantly higher than the average across all industries.
• In 2008/09, the LFS showed that between an estimated 0.2 and 0.6 million working days (full-day equivalent) were lost in this industry due to workplace injury and work-related ill health.
• In 2008/09p, the fatal injury rate for workers in agriculture was 5.7 per 100 000, the lowest rate ever. The average rate for the previous 5 years is 9.9 per 100,000. However, agriculture still has the highest rate of fatal injuries of all industries.
• Agriculture has one of the highest rates of major injuries compared with other industries (205.4 per 100 000 employees in 2008/09p).
• The apparent fall in major and over-3-day injuries between 2003/04 and 2006/07 does not appear to have continued into 2007/08 to 2008/09p when there was little change in the rates.
• Falls from heights and slips/trips were the two main causes of major injuries within agriculture. Handling incidents were by far the most common cause of over-3-day injuries, followed by slips and trips.
• Relative to other industries, a higher proportion of reported injuries in agriculture were caused by moving machinery, falling objects, falls from height and moving vehicles. Unsurprisingly, the proportion of injuries caused by animals was more than 11 times greater than other industries.