ABSTRACT
There are no signs of a drop in the number of deaths in accidents while at farmwork, hovering around 400 a year. Furthermore, the fact remains that accurate data about those farm accidents are not fully grasped.This reality gave birth to a Special Study Team on the Prevention of Farmwork Accidents in the Japanese Association of Rural Medicine.To cast light on the actuality of farm work accidents, questionnaires on accidents caused by farm machinery and instruments were sent to three medical institutions affiliated with the Association from October 2002 to March 2004. As a result, clinical data were collected on 141 clinical cases. Moreover, studies were performed on five cases in which rescue squads were dispatched to give aid to the injured.The data thus collected on the clinical cases revealed that grass cutters, harvesters, riding and push-on-foot types of tractors, and straw cutters were responsible for many accidents. Some individuals were involved in the accidents as operators of grass cutters were unaware of their existence nearby because of noise from the machines, some dragged in by the harvesters or straw cutters, and some pinned under the tractors.Case studies on death-induced accidents suggested the indispensability of fitting a safety frame and a seat belt to the tractor and installing a cabin on the speed sprayer.For the prevention of accidents by farm machinery, it is important to hold lecture meetings more frequently both on the basic method of their use and on first aid.
Subject(s)
Disease Prevention , Accidents , ResearchABSTRACT
Given the outbreak of accidents in which workers, engaged in the management and control of national forests, are stung by wasps, the Forestry Agency has decided to have them carry around and, when anaphylactic shock occurs after a sting, use Epipen, an automatic injector of American makes immediately.<BR>In this paper, we report on the developments that have led to the use of Epipen, the clinical cases for which it was used, and its efficacy. The automatic syringe was used for 10 cases over a period of five years, and the lives of nine of them were saved thanks to its efficacy.<BR>It is hoped that this syringe will be used not just by the Forestry Agency but in a broad range of pre-hospital care sectors.
ABSTRACT
The farmers accident compensation insurance system is on the verge of a crisis. With the ratio of revenue to expenditure being 100 to 131.5, it has become extremely difficult to indemnify the insured or their beneficiaries for bodily injury and death due to accidental means.<BR>This reflects rapid progress in mechanization of farm work and aging of the farming population, which results in an alarming increase in the number of serious accidents. A check on a survey taken by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in 1992 reveals that the number of accidents in which farmers were killed while at work amounts to 401 cases. Of this number, 256 cases, or 63.8%, involved persons of 60 years and above, indicating the dead and injured in agricultural accidents are increasing in number among elderly people.<BR>In Kanagawa Prefecture, a total of 446 accidents involving farmers and agricultural machinery have occurred over the past eight years. The average number of days lost by injured persons in the agricultural accidents worked out at 39 days. The average occurrence rate of an agricultural accident per 1, 000 persons came to 14.4, nearly three times as high as the average 5.2 for the rest of industries. A look at the accident occurrence rate in 1993 per 1, 000 persons insured under the workmen's accident compensation insurance system also showed that it was 28.0 for agriculture, compared with 16.5 for construction industry and the average 13.8 for all industries. This clearly indicates that agriculture has been transformed into a type of industry “structurally” in great peril.<BR>Such being the circumstances, it is urgent that bold measures should be taken to inprove the balance between expenditure and revenue in the workers accident compensation insurance that has to do with agriculture. Among the measures we would like to propose here:(1) to promote accident prevention measures and hold in check an outlay for compensation;(2) to increase the number of the insured and garner more premiums;(3) to increase basic premium rates (?);(4) to beef up the secretariat of JA (?); and (5) to establish a safety-first administrative management.
ABSTRACT
A total of 194 cases of liver cirrhosis, which had been treated in our hospital during the past 5 years, were calssified by the causes into the following four groups:(I) hepatitis B virus, (II) alcoholic, (III) special origins, and (IV) reasons unknown. They each accounted for 23.2%, 35.6%, 1.5% and 39.7%, of the total.<BR>Their clinical features and prognosis were examined. To be noted is the finding that many patients in group IV had had blood transfusions. This suggests that non A non B hepatitis viruses might be involved in the occurrence of the liver disease. On the whole, the five-year survival rate was 45.6%. There was not any significant difference among the four groups. However, prognoses were poor in groups II, I and IV, in that order.<BR>As regards the cause of death, rupture of esophageal varice and hepatic failure showed a gradual decline, but complications of hepatocellular carcinomas sharply increased. Especially, in group I, this mortality was as high as 31.1%.