Health Topics
Agriculture is a major industry in the US and includes growing and harvesting crops such as corn, cotton, soybeans, and fruit, as well as raising livestock, poultry, and other animals to provide products such as beef, chicken eggs, dairy, and wool (OSHA, Agricultural Operations).
According to US Bureau of Labor Statistics, agriculture is one of the most dangerous occupations. This, by and large, is due to the varied number of agricultural risks encountered by farmers and farm workers. In fact, Farmers and farm workers suffer from increased rates of respiratory diseases, noise-induced hearing loss, skin disorders, certain cancers, chemical toxicity, and heat-related illnesses (OSU, College of Agricultural Sciences).
Page updated: July 2021
Hazards Topics
Hazards Resources
Co-written by Charlotte Halverson and Carey Portell Skin cancer is the most common cancer in the United States and is related to repeated exposure to the sun, which causes damagingRead More
Understanding asthma from the inside out
Three NIH institutes fund asthma studies to improve treatment and learn more about what causes this widespread illness: the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID); the National Heart,Read More
Understanding and preventing tick bites
[Introduction] As people spend more time outdoors, so do many insects and pests. Among them are ticks, which are small bloodsucking parasites and arthropods. Some diseases you can get fromRead More