Updated agriculture injury database could help journalists - Entrepreneur Generations

A screenshot from AgInjuryNews.org; click to enlarge it.

Farming is a dangerous job; here's a website that can give you a better idea of just how much.

There is no official data set of agricultural injuries and fatalities, but information about such things can often be found in news stories, obituaries, coroner reports, or social media posts. AgInjuryNews.org compiles farming injury and fatalities from all these sources and more, in hopes of raising awareness and providing stakeholders a way to monitor trends.

The National Farm Medicine Center established the website in 2015, but the newly updated version has new features and data, including an interactive map display, more data granularity for search and filters, and customizable email alerts. It isn't perfect: when we clicked on injuries in Winchester, Kentucky, we found a news article about an ag injury that happened in Winchester, Indiana.

Bryan Weichelt, an NFMC associate research scientist, "acknowledges that there are limitations to gleaning injury data from news reports, including the fact that not all agricultural fatalities are reported in the media. Non-fatal injuries are thought to be particularly underreported," according to a press release about the updated website from the Marshfield Clinic Research Institute, which operates the NFMC. However, the website could be a valuable tool for journalists writing about agriculture, policy, and workplace safety.

AgInjuryNews.org is funded by the National Children's Center for Rural and Agricultural Health & Safety, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the Agricultural Safety and Health Council of America, the University of Wisconsin's Institute for Clinical and Translational Research, and NFMC donors.

from The Rural Blog https://ift.tt/2ROQZu1 Updated agriculture injury database could help journalists - Entrepreneur Generations

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