Agricultural Personnel Management Program
University of California

Agricultural Safety and Health

+ Organizational and major reference sites oriented to agriculture
+ Other info "hubs" and pages with structured links
+ Specific pages of interest from within sites

Health & safety sites with particular relevance to agriculture

  • National Agricultural Safety Database (NASD)
    • NASD is a national repository of agricultural health, safety, and injury prevention materials for the agricultural community, especially for adaption by agricultural safety specialists.  Recently redesigned to further enhance functionality and attractiveness,  this site offers a large compendium of education and information resources organized by topic, state, language (Español), and form (e.g., fact sheet, news release, script, video abstract, poster). Stemming from a project funded by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health to develop a CD-ROM, the site is now  is maintained by the Southern Coastal Agromedicine Center under a grant from NIOSH.
  • California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) publications
    • Among other Safety & Health sections in the California Department of Industrial Relations website, this page includes an extensive list of downloadable posters, forms, and other publications, several specific to agriculture.  Among them are three model Injury and Illness Prevention Programs -- for (1) High Hazard Employers, (2) Non-High Hazard Employers, and (3) Intermittent Workers in Agriculture (also in Spanish), Guidelines for Workplace Security (preventing and dealing with violence), and a Brief Guide to Recordkeeping Requirements (beware, 3.8MB pdf).
  • California Department of Pesticide Regulation
    • DPR, California/EPA.
  • AgSafe Coalition
    • Agriculture Health and Safety professional development association.
  • National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health links
    • Agriculture-related links from NIOSH.
  • Western Center for Agricultural Health and Safety
    • NIOSH-funded center, based at the UC Davis School of Medicine.
  • Pacific Northwest Agricultural Safety & Health Center
    • NIOSH-funded center, based at the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, University of Washington.
  • Agricultural Ergonomics Research Center
    • AERC, based at the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, UC Davis.
  • UC Farm Safety Program
    • Safety and health education, including the quarterly Farm Safety Newsletter, published at UC Davis.
  • North American Guidelines for Children's Agricultural Tasks
    • While designed to enhance health and safety of children in agricultural work, this site contains crop/task-specific advice and hazard analyses applicable to people of any age performing farm jobs.
  • AgNIC links
    • Jumbo list of agriculture-related information systems, databases, and datasets from the Agriculture Network Information Center.  An outgrowth of work by the National Agricultural Library's (NAL) Electronic Research Database Committee.
  • Battling Heat Stress in Agriculture
    • Site offers  information on heat stress causes, consequences, and prevention.   A page of references includes  links to practical educational articles and management guidelines, scientific reports, and slidesets.
  • Agricultual Safety and Health Program, U. of Minnesota
    • Launched in 9/99 as Farm Safety & Health Digest, a web-based version of a series previously published by the UM Extension Service from 1992 through 1996.  Though somewhat oriented to the midwest, it highlights research findings and provides information useful to farm managers and safety advocates around the country.
  • University of Illinois Extension, Agricultural Safety and Health site
    • Material and links are grouped as research, service, fact sheets, publications, virtual library, misc, and links.
  • National Center for Farmworker Health
    • NCFH, established 1975 in Austin, Texas, provides a wide range of services to improve the health of farm workers in America.  Among its excellent online resources are back issues of its bi-monthly Migrant Health Newsline, and a portfolio of low literacy, bilingual presentations for patient education in migrant health centers and outreach programs.
  • Gempler's Alert
    • Announcements and online features selected monthly from this fee-based print newsletter providing safety and employment law information to agricultural employers.  Links to additional online references (e.g., tip sheets) and to Gempler's catalog.
  • American Society of Agricultural Engineers
    • Publications of the ASAE, the professional society for engineering in agricultural, food, and biological systems.  Includes a searchable technical library.

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    Other hubs and pages with structured ag health & safety links

  • Medical News Today
    • News clipped every day from publications reporting on health and medical developments.
  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
    • CDC, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.  Extensive library of references includes highly technical material  as well as practical fact-sheets and explanations suitable for a broad range of audiences.  Also en Español.
  • Occupational Safety and Health Administration
    • OSHA, U.S. Dept. of Labor.
  • OSHA DATA
    • Private corporation offering standard and custom searches of OSHA compliance enforcement data.
  • NIOSH Bibliographic Database
    • Citations, including many abstracts and links, to publications generated with NIOSH support (1971 to 1998) and literature in the vast National Library of Medicine.  Searchable by topic, author, title, year, and keywords.
  • Cal/OSHA
    • Safety & Health sections in the California Department of Industrial Relations website.
  • OSHWEB
    • Institute of Occupational Safety Engineering at the Tampere University of Technology, Finland!  Includes an extensive index of occupational health and safety links.
  • Chem-Tox.com
    • Large collection of research briefs and reports on health disorders resulting from exposure to common chemicals and pesticides.
  • EXtension TOXicology NETwork
    • EXTOXNET, pesticide toxicology and environmental chemistry information.
  • Vermont SIRI (safety information resources, inc.)
    • Safety information links from SIRI.
  • SafetyLine
    • On-line information service provided by WorkSafe Western Australia.
  • Ergoweb
    • Spun off from its original home at the University of Utah in 1995, Ergoweb is a private ergonomics company that provides scientifically based, application oriented products and services. Its excellent resources and references pages include ergonomics standards and guidelines, background information, case studies, data links, and a wealth of other ergonomics resources.
  • Safety Info.Com
    • A large collection of practical, tested safety program tools, information, and links.  Many materials, including some in Spanish, are free to guests, and others are available only to fee-paying subscribers.  Primarily tailored for small to medium size business operations, and not specific to agriculture, but very useful for farm and other employers who want to provide their employees a safe and healthy workplace, meet regulatory requirements, and establish effective loss control.
  • Usernomics
    • A large meta-site for locating ergonomics and human factors information of use to industrial safety professionals as well as the general public.

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    Specific pages and sub-sites of interest  (mostly from within sites above)

  • Field Sanitation factsheet
    • From Cal-OSHA.
  • California Pesticide Worker Safety Regulations
    • Regulations as revised in 1997 in accord with the federal Worker Protection Standard.
  • California Code of Regulations, Title 8, Cal/OSHA Standards
    • Search engine and clickable table of contents providing online access to industrial safety orders under Title 8
  • Pesticide Safety Information Series (PSIS) leaflets
    • All 11 PSIS leaflets, in English and Spanish, revised in 2003.
  • WPS-Forum
    • Gateway to discussion group and reference archive on the Worker Protection Standard for Agricultural Pesticides.
  • AgSafe Educational modules
    • Twelve scripts with illustrations, developed in cooperation with the Safety Center, Inc. and the Farm Employers Labor Service.
  • California-based Materials in the National Ag Safety Database
    • Includes fact sheets, scripts, audiovisual aids, and more, many in both English and Spanish.
  • MSDS Search
    • Material Safety Data Sheet access from Vermont SIRI.
  • Recognition and Management of Pesticide Poisonings
    • Nineteen downloadable chapters, courtesy of Oregon State U. and the U.Sl. EPA.
  •  California Pesticide Illness Surveillance Reports, 1996-2001
    • Reports and data tables from the California Pesticide Illness Surveillance Program, California Department of Pesticide Regulation, Worker Health and Safety Branch.
  • Respirator Guide
    • NIOSH Guide to the Selection and Use of Particulate Respirators Certified Under 42 CFR 84, DHHS (NIOSH) Publication No. 96-101, January 1996.
  • NIOSH Childhood Agricultural Injury Prevention Initiative
    • Program goals are to fill critical data needs; facilitate the use of data to develop and improve upon prevention efforts; and encourage the use of effective prevention strategies.
  • NORA
    • National Occupational Research Agenda, an OSHA report presenting a framework for occupational safety and health research in the next decade.
    Tools for Safety Training Across Culture/Language Barriers
  • Simple Solutions: Ergonomics for Farm Workers
    • Booklet providing general tips and describing more than a dozen sets of minor tool and procedural adjustments to reduce risks of muskulo-skeletal disorders from agricultural work.  Produced by NIOSH, downloadable as a pdf, also in Spanish.
  • Programa en Español de Seguridad e Higiene en el Trabajo de OR-OSHA
    • "PESO," produced by the Oregon state OSHA, is a set of 11 modules that help employers deliver job safety training to Latino workers.  Each module presents material in English, Spanish, and pictoral form combined in both powerpoint presentations and booklet document files.


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