Work-related musculoskeletal disorders are so common among experienced farmers and farm workers that many perceive them as no more than normal and inevitable consequences of farm labor. However, even when limited to the poor sources of data currently available on the extent of these injuries in agricultural workplaces, there is reason for new, high priority concern. We believe that the overall incidence of these injuries in the nation’s agricultural workplaces likely exceeds 60 per 1000 workers, placing agriculture squarely among those industries with the highest recorded rates. This estimated incidence rate yields a total of over twenty times as many musculoskeletal injuries and illnesses as estimated
pesticide injuries and illnesses in US agriculture annually (Blondell 1997). Musculoskeletal injuries and diseases likely affect the production agriculture workforce more frequently during their working years than any other safety and health
problem. Disability due to musculoskeletal injuries and diseases incurred during their working years affect the production agriculture workforce more frequently and more severely than any other safety and health problem during the remainder
of their working years and, for many, for the balance of their lives.