• splinters & fragments

When you think of Florida, you may picture a tropical vacation spot with beaches and Disney World. But Florida is also a predominantly agricultural state. A recent article provides us with a first comprehensive look at injury deaths on Florida farms. The authors, who are with the new Deep South Agricultural Health and Safety Center, examined 231 injury deaths, 20 of which occurred to children. The leading cause of death for both adults and children was machinery, primarily tractors. There were also deaths due to falls, electrocutions, drowning and, for women, homicide (

).

The Indian Health Service in the US has for many years conducted a sanitation facilities construction program to develop, improve, and provide sanitary water supply and wastewater disposal to Native American homes. In Northern California, engineering technicians conducting homesite evaluations were trained to also identify certain injury risk conditions in the home environment. Technicians recorded the presence or absence of smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, fire extinguishers, fall and poisoning hazards, fire safety plans, and water heater temperature risks. They also installed smoke detectors, first …