The prevalence of work accidents in Estonian agriculture in 2008–2017

Occupational accidents in agriculture are a problem all over the world. The costs of accidents are high to the employer and to the national economy as a whole. Work-related ill-health and injury is costing the European Union 3.3% of its GDP. In Estonia, the estimates of the costs of work accidents (WA) in 2012 showed €2.4 billion per year and due to permanent lost workability €25 billion costs in total for society. Even if the most sectors become more automated, there are also self-employed farmers, who cannot always use the newest technologies. At the same time, family members and farm workers are facing risks higher than in most other occupations. Many accidents involve the handling of machinery or animals. The objective of the study was to analyse fatal and non-fatal work accidents by demographic parameters, severity, type, causes and body location of injuries in Estonian agriculture in 2008–2017. Method. The database of accidents in agriculture was obtained from the Estonian Labour Inspectorate and the data by absolute numbers, percentages and incident rates have described. Results. The total number of accidents at work in agriculture was 1696, which formed 4% from the total economic sector. The average incident rate in the past decade was 678 accidents per 100 000 workers. Predominantly minor accidents and usually among male workers have taken place. There are mainly 3 types of injuries – wounds and superficial injuries (40.4% of the total), bone fractures (25.6%) and concussion and internal injuries (16.2%). The most common causes of work accidents are lack of internal control (20.3%), poor instruction (18.5%) and other factors (18.1%). The most often locations of the injuries throughout the years were upper or lower limbs (35.7% and 33.0% respectively). The biggest number of accidents was taken place at Järva county.