Health Hazards Affecting the Animal Confinement Farm Worker

arming is a dynamic process.Occupational exposures change as the production process, equipment, weather, and conditions change.Farming also is unique, as it represents one of the few occupations in which many of the workers live where they work (Connon, 1993;Pratt, 1990).Understanding the magnitude of agricultural health and safety issues is complicated by the difficulty in identifying the total work force.There are few uniformly accepted definitions of farm, farmer, or farm worker (Cordes, 1991;Pratt, 1990).The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (1990) reported 13.1 million persons in the United States in 1989 who derived at least part of their income from farming.Of these, 6 million were family members living and, in many cases, working on the farm.An estimated 3 million of these men, women, and children are migrant or seasonal work-