Updated agriculture injury database could help journalists

Screenshot from AgInjuryNews.org; click on it to enlarge

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, social media posts, and other sources. 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: a click for injuries in Winchester, Ky., gets you a news article about an injury that happened in Winchester, Ind.

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 through NFMC donors.