TY - JOUR
T1 - Occupational injuries and diseases in fish farming in Finland 1996-2015
AU - Kaustell, Kim Olavi
AU - Mattila, Tiina Elina Anneli
AU - Ahvonen, Anssi
AU - Rautiainen, Risto Heikki
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was supported by Natural Resources Institute Finland and The Farmers’ Social Insurance Institution (Mela). The Finnish Workers’ Compensation Centre (TVK) provided the occupational injury and disease claims data, and Statistics Finland the fish farming employment data for this study. The effort of Risto Rautiainen was partially supported by the CDC/NIOSH award U54OH010162 to the Central States Centre for Agricultural Safety and Health at the University of Nebraska Medical Centre.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 PSMTTM.
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - Background: The agriculture, forestry and fishing industry sector has high rates of occupational injuries. Fishing has globally particularly high occupational fatality rates, but injuries and illnesses to people working in its sub-sectors, aquaculture and fish farming, are not well understood. Materials and methods: This study characterised injuries and occupational diseases to fish farmers and people employed on fish farms in Finland using national employment and accident insurance (workers' compensation) data. Results: A total of 392 injuries and 18 occupational diseases were compensated during 1996 to 2015 to fish farmers and people employed on fish farms in Finland. The average injury rate was 3.2 injuries per 100 employed persons with no significant trend over time. Two of the injuries were fatal. Injured persons were primarily male (87.2%), in 45-54 year age group (39.1%), and working in coastal areas (49%). Common injury characteristics included: incident type: slips, trips, and falls (37%); location: building, structure or ground level surface (28%); injured body part: hand or finger (25%); type of injury: dislocation, sprain, strain (35%); and lost worktime: 1 to 2 weeks (26.9%). Seven out of 18 occupational diseases occurred to women, most resulting in cumulative trauma from fish processing. Conclusions: The injury rate in fish farming corresponds to rate in all industries combined in Finland, and is higher than the rate in available Nordic statistics on fish farming. Fish farming injuries could be reduced further by slip resistant surfaces, protection of hands and fingers and ergonomics in processing.
AB - Background: The agriculture, forestry and fishing industry sector has high rates of occupational injuries. Fishing has globally particularly high occupational fatality rates, but injuries and illnesses to people working in its sub-sectors, aquaculture and fish farming, are not well understood. Materials and methods: This study characterised injuries and occupational diseases to fish farmers and people employed on fish farms in Finland using national employment and accident insurance (workers' compensation) data. Results: A total of 392 injuries and 18 occupational diseases were compensated during 1996 to 2015 to fish farmers and people employed on fish farms in Finland. The average injury rate was 3.2 injuries per 100 employed persons with no significant trend over time. Two of the injuries were fatal. Injured persons were primarily male (87.2%), in 45-54 year age group (39.1%), and working in coastal areas (49%). Common injury characteristics included: incident type: slips, trips, and falls (37%); location: building, structure or ground level surface (28%); injured body part: hand or finger (25%); type of injury: dislocation, sprain, strain (35%); and lost worktime: 1 to 2 weeks (26.9%). Seven out of 18 occupational diseases occurred to women, most resulting in cumulative trauma from fish processing. Conclusions: The injury rate in fish farming corresponds to rate in all industries combined in Finland, and is higher than the rate in available Nordic statistics on fish farming. Fish farming injuries could be reduced further by slip resistant surfaces, protection of hands and fingers and ergonomics in processing.
KW - Aquaculture
KW - Occupational diseases
KW - Occupational injuries
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U2 - 10.5603/IMH.2019.0007
DO - 10.5603/IMH.2019.0007
M3 - Article
C2 - 30931517
AN - SCOPUS:85063998203
VL - 70
SP - 47
EP - 54
JO - International maritime health
JF - International maritime health
SN - 1641-9251
IS - 1
ER -