Citation

Murphy DJ. J. Agromed. 2017; 22(4): 304-308.

Affiliation

Nationwide Insurance Professor of Agricultural Safety and Health, Department of Agricultural & Biological Engineering , The Pennsylvania State University.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/1059924X.2017.1353469

PMID

28704140

Abstract

Nearly 750,000 youth on working on farms across the United States. The U.S. Department of Labor's (U.S. DOL) Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) Hazardous Occupations Orders for Agriculture (HOOA) applies to approximately 37% of these youth. The HOOA regulations had not been updated since their inception in the late 1960s and early 1970s. An attempt by U.S. DOL to update the regulations in 2011 was met with fierce opposition by the agricultural community, and the proposed updated regulations were withdrawn. One impactful outcome of these two events was a rededication by USDA and the farm community to address agricultural youth farm safety through education rather than through regulation. An agriculturally-based National Steering Committee has developed consensus Belief Statements and Guiding Principles to proactively influence agricultural youth safety. In this case, USDA was clearly a 'sphere of influence' for youth agricultural safety.

Language: en

Keywords

Federal agencies; USDA-NIFA; safety consensus; youth safety