2007 Alberta Farm Injury Report

FARM ACCIDENT MONITORING SYSTEM

The content of this report was gathered from the Farm Accident Monitoring System (FAMS). The purpose of this report is to provide information on injury accidents recorded by the monitoring hospitals in 2007. The information in this report will be used by the Farm Safety Program in Alberta to enhance its education and awareness programs.

It is important to note:

• FAMS is a voluntary program – not all hospitals report.
• FAMS records emergency room visits only, not hospitalizations.
• To view long-term data on hospitalizations and fatalities across Canada go to the Canadian Agricultural Injury Surveillance Program ( CAISP) at www.meds.queensu.ca/~emresrch/caisp

• Number of injuries per month and how many hospitals reported them this year.
• Totals per quarter with total facilities reporting in that quarter.

Quarter	1	2	3	4	Total	# of Hospitals
Jan	46	4			50	36
Feb	35	7	1		43	30
Mar	42	21	5		68	37
1st Quarter	123					42 hospitals
Apr		78	1		79	38
May		154	5		159	41
June		97	4	11	112	39
2nd Quarter		361				45 hospitals
July			95	4	99	36
Aug			74	22	96	34
Sept			26	60	86	34
3rd Quarter			211			39 hospitals
Oct				86	86	34
Nov				44	44	31
Dec				28	28	28
4th Quarter				255		37 hospitals
Total					950	50 Hospitals

• Alberta was divided into 9 Regional Health Authorities in April 2003.
• # of ER departments taken from www.health.gov.ab.ca/regions (Feb.2008)

RHA	1	2	3	4	Total	Percentage	# of Hospitals
1 Chinook	26	123	59	85	293	31%	9 [9]
2 Palliser	6	25	5	6	42	4%	4 [5]
3 Calgary	21	36	23	18	98	10%	2 [13]
4 David Thompson	5	22	8	19	54	6%	7 [17]
5 East Central	9	34	43	19	105	11%	9 [13]
6 Capital Health	54	86	65	82	287	30%	11 [11]
7 Aspen	2	35	8	26	71	8%	8 [18]
8 Peace Country	0	0	0	0	0		0 [12]
9 Northern Lights	0	0	0	0	0		0 [3]
	123	361	211	255	950	100%	50 out of 95

Ag Regions	1	2	3	4	Total	Percentage
1	51	171	82	103	407	43%
2	6	35	13	25	79	8%
3	10	46	50	21	127	13%
4	56	109	66	106	337	36%
5	0	0	0	0	0
Unspecified			0		0
Total	123	361	211	255	950	100%

Gender	1	2	3	4	Total	Percentage
Male	95	271	166	189	721	76%
Female	28	90	41	66	225	24%
Unspecified			4		4
Total	123	361	211	255	950	100%

Agent	1	2	3	4	Total	Percentage
Livestock	51	174	66	76	367	39%
Machinery	21	64	64	78	227	24%
Tools	13	28	11	22	74	8%
Chemical	5	14	4	12	35	4%
Fire	0	3	0	0	3
Other or Unspecified	47	113	79	71	*310	25%
Total	137	396	224	259	1016	100%
					* 66 cases of 2 agent incidents

• Total number of injuries reported = 367 ( 39% of total )
• Horses accounted for 29% of livestock related injuries ( 108 cases )
• Another 46% (167 cases ) involved cattle; 1% ( 4 cases ) involved pigs
• 74% (272 cases) were kicked or hit by livestock; 15% (55 cases) occurred from fall off
• a horse; 2% (7 cases) involved livestock hitting gate and then gate hitting farmer.

Livestock	1	2	3	4	Total
Cow	22	88	22	35	167
Horse	8	59	23	18	108
Pig			3	1	4
Chicken				1	1
Sheep	1				1
Elk / deer
Dog	2		1		3
Goat / alpaca
Buffalo				1	1
Cat				1	1
Donkey/Mule
Not Specified	18	27	17	19	81
Total	51	174	66	76	367

• Total number of injuries reported = 227 [ 24% of total ]
• Tractors ranked as the number one type of machinery involved in injury accidents 15% [35 cases]. Of these, 46% [16 cases] occurred when getting on/off of the tractor.
• Next was augers 7% [17 cases], combines 6% [13 cases], trucks 4% [9 cases], swathers 4%
• [8 cases], balers and potato harvesting equipment 3% [7 cases each], ATV’s 2% [5 cases], followed by, post pounders, cultivators, feed systems and irrigation equipment 1% [3 cases each].
• 37 cases or 16% were not differentiated. They were only listed as farm machinery.
• 20% [45 cases] were caught in operating machinery and there were no cases of clothing caught in machinery.
• 11% [25 cases] occurred while repairing machinery.
• There were 7 injuries [0.75%] involving machinery rollovers and 7 injuries [0.75%] involving machinery run over.

• Total number of reported injuries = 74 [ 8% of total ]
• Needles/syringes were the tools most often cited in reported injuries [32%], followed by
• knives [27%] and hammers [7%].
• Some other tools reported in injuries were grinder, wrench, jackall, welder, drill, air compressor and crowbar.

• There were 35 injuries reported involving chemicals [ 4% of total ]

Fire	1	2	3	4	Total
Gasoline
Electrical		1			1
Chemical
Wood		1			1
Grass		1			1
Swather
Garbage
Barn
Other
Total	0	3	0	0	3

Other Agents	1	2	3	4	Total
Bales: Hay/Straw/Stack/Twine	4	1	2	1	8
Barn/Loft/Granary		1	3	3	7
Cattle Gate/Squeeze/Chute		6	2		8
Clothing
Concrete Forms
Feed Trough/Bale Feeder				1	1
Fence/Post/corral		3	1	4	8
Gate	6	22	7	8	43
Grain/Grain Dust	1	3	4	1	9
Lumber/Handle/Stick	2	1	1	1	5
Manure
Metal	5	7	7	1	20
Nail		1	4	1	6
Pipe/Chains		2	1	2	5
Rope		3	1	1	5
Scaffold/Ladder	3	2	2	2	9
Terrain	2	17	9	11	39
Trailer/Wagon		1	1	2	4
Water Tank
Wire/Barb Wire		3	4	1	8
Unspecified/other	24	40	30	31	125
Total	47	113	79	71	*310

• The 45 to 60 year olds were involved in more accidents than any other group, accounting for 30% [285 cases] of the total injuries reported.
• The age group with the least number of reported accidents was the children under 10 years old 6% [56 cases]. Children under 17 years of age accounted for 14% of all injuries.
• People over 60 years of age accounted for 17% of reported injuries.

Age Groups	1	2	3	4	Total
< 6	5	10	8	5	28
6 to 10	4	8	10	6	28
11 to 17	7	32	23	18	80
18 to 34	25	91	44	62	222
35 to 44	18	59	23	42	142
45 to 60	42	107	60	76	285
> 60	22	54	43	46	165
Not Specified		0	0	0	0
Total	123	361	211	255	950

• Saturday recorded the most injuries at 17% and Wednesday the least at 12%.

• The majority (69%) of reported farm injuries occurred between the hours of 9 AM and 9 PM.
• Time indicated is when person presented at ER department – not necessarily when injury occurred.

8. Body Part	1	2	3	4	Total
Upper Extremity	42	123	92	98	355
hand/wrist	14	43	27	39	123
finger	19	34	30	29	112
thumb	4	7	9	4	24
arm/shoulder	5	39	26	26	96
Lower Extremity	31	89	46	57	223
foot/ankle/toe	8	33	18	27	86
leg/knee/hip	23	56	28	30	137
Trunk	18	59	35	52	164
back	8	11	6	13	38
abdomen/groin	3	16	10	9	38
chest/lungs	4	21	8	19	52
ribs	3	11	11	11	36
Head	28	79	36	43	186
head/neck	10	41	20	26	97
face	8	23	6	13	50
eye	10	15	10	4	39
Entire Body	4	11	2	5	22
No Body Parts Identified
Total	123	361	211	255	950

Laceration	22	67	47	56	192	20%
Contusion	23	89	28	43	183	19%
Fracture	23	73	46	61	203	21%
Crush	4	14	7	18	43	5%
Amputation	4	5	4	0	13	1%
Foreign Body	10	16	11	2	39	4%
Puncture	12	5	9	16	42	4%
Sprain	8	29	14	17	68	7%
Burn	2	5		2	9	1%
Abrasion		8	4	5	17	2%
Dislocation	4	10	5	2	21	2%
Concussion	6	8	5	6	25	3%
Strain	4	7	8	6	25	3%
Other		23	7	5	35	4%
Not Specified	1	2	16	16	35	4%
Total	123	361	211	255	950	100%

• This was only recorded in 13% of the reported injuries. Of these:
• 31% (39 cases) occurred in the field; 25% (31 cases) occurred in the corral;
• 17% (21 cases) occurred in the yard; other locations include barn, shop, granary, arena, auction and feedlot.

Location	1	2	3	4	Total
Yard	1	17		3	21
Field	1	14	17	7	39
Corral	2	20	4	5	31
Barn	3	6	3	7	19
Shop	2	3		1	6
Other	2	2		4	8
Not Specified	112	299	187	228	826
Total	123	361	211	255	950