Assignment of work involving farm tractors to children on North American farms

Background Children are at high risk for tractor-related injury. The North American Guidelines for Children's Agricultural Tasks (NAGCAT) provide reco mmendations for the assignment of tractor work. This analysis describes tra ctor-related jobs assigned to farm children and compares them to NAGCAT: Methods A descriptive analysis was conducted of baseline data collected by telephone interview during a randomized, controlled trial. Results The study population consisted of 1,138 children who worked on 498 North American farms, A total of 2,389 farm jobs were reported and 456 (19. 1%) involved operation of farm tractors. Leading types of tractor jobs were identified Modest, yet important, percentages of children were assigned tr actor work before the minimum ages recommended by NAGCAT Conclusions Children on farms are involved in tractor work at a young age a nd some are involved in jobs that they are unlikely to have the development al abilities to perform. NAGCAT is a new parental resource that can be appl ied to these work situations. (C) 2001 Wiley-Liss, Inc.