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A rapid, subjective health and safety assessment tool was developed and applied to 121 farm operations visited during a cross-sectional, on-farm industrial hygiene (IH) study of the Iowa Farm Family Health and Hazard Surveillance Project (IFFHHSP). The study utilized a single field investigator who conducted visits of farm operations from August 1995 to July 1996. The farm operations visited were randomly selected from a stratified, two-stage cluster sample of Iowa farm operations. The tool developed and applied to each farm operation-the Site Rank System-was based on the average of scores assigned to four different farm characteristics, which we believed would predict the health and safety status of the farm operations. Two of these characteristics were based on an assessment of each farm's operator (operator attitude and operator practices) and the other two were based on weighted scores assigned to physical components of the farm operation (status of facilities and status of equipment). The Site Rank System was found to have been assigned consistently, but an analysis comparing the Site Rank System scores to initial in-depth medical and environmental data gathered from the visited farm operations via self-reported questionnaires showed little correlation with outcomes. However, self-reported injuries (11 total) which occurred to the principal farm operators of the farm operations visited during the on-farm IH study phase (August 1995 to July 1996) correlated with low Site Rank System scores. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The scientific literature is lacking in published agricultural noise assessments for employees of swine confinement facilities that have included dosimeter data, octave band analysis, or specific task exposure assessments. This study reports on the former three types of noise assessments in the farrowing stage of swine. Dosimeter data on workers revealed all assessments to be greater than 90 decibels measured on the A-scale (dBA), which exceeds the 85 dBA National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Recommended Exposure Limit (REL). RELs were exceeded for all of the employees monitored in the swine facility, as well as the part-time employees who power-washed the farrowing rooms. The recorded time-weighted values were actually underestimated slightly because the dosimeters were set to record only noise at 85 dBA and higher.