Study looks at Ag injuries to kids

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health is sending Iowa State University a 760-thousand dollar grant to study farm-related injuries to children. Charles Schwab is an I-S-U professor and one of the researchers on the project. He says they’re going to try and determine what kind of impacts some common carrying tasks have on children proportional to the child’s weight, and the type of weight they’re carrying. Schwab says it will be a three year study. He says that’s because of the type of work and measurements they need to take, and the number of kids they have to study. While much of the work on a farm is mechanized, Schwab says there’s still a lot that’s done by hand. He says they’ve found these “carrying tasks” are some of the things kids are allowed to do because they don’t involved machinery and are considered “safer.” Schwab doesn’t know exactly how many Iowa kids may be working on farms.He says they do know that the number of children injured on farms are 20-percent of the total number of injuries reported every year in Iowa on farms. Schwab says the study will involve 88 children volunteers from 4-H clubs in Iowa between the ages eight to 17.