Work-related injuries may occur because children are assigned hazardous farm jobs that are beyond their physical and mental capabilities. The North American Guidelines for Children's Agricultural Tasks (NAGCAT) were developed to assist parents in assigning appropriate and safe jobs to their children 7-16 years. Farm tractors account for the majority of deaths and major portions of non-fatal trauma among children on North American farms. Because of this high frequency of tractor involvement in childhood fatalities and other traumatic farm injuries, NAGCAT have a heavy emphasis on safe operation of farm tractors in different work situations. The proposed study aims to build upon the NAGCAT project by providing a field test of the NAGCAT tractor guidelines. The objective of this study is to systematically assess the most common tractors operated by children with respect to dimensional and operational characteristics in order to identify any potential strength and anthropometrics mismatches between the physical characteristics of children and adolescents of ages 12 to 16 years (ages recommended for tractor operation by NAGCAT) and the tractors they are operating. To achieve this objective, the following specific aims will be addressed: Evaluate 250 tractors that are representative of those operated by children with respect to a) seat dimensions and characteristics b) control reach and clearance requirements c) control force activation requirements d) monocular, binocular, and ambinocular fields of view e) entry/exit characteristics. Identify potential strength and anthropometrics mismatches between the requirements of operating a given tractor and the physical characteristics of children and adolescents of ages 12 to 16 years. Recommend revisions to the NAGCAT tractor guidelines based on these findings. The results of this study will provide scientific evidence of the extent to which the NAGCAT tractor guidelines (developed by consensus) actually reflect a match between the physical abilities of children and adolescents 12 to 16 years and the tractors they commonly operate. It is anticipated that once the recommended revisions are incorporated into the NAGCAT, the risks of traumatic and fatal injuries to children due to tractor operation will be reduced.
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| Fathallah, F A; Chang, J H; Berg, R L et al. (2008) Forces required to operate controls on farm tractors: implications for young operators. Ergonomics 51:1096-108 |
