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 recommendations for the assignment of tractor work. This analysis describes tractor-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 tractor work before the minimum ages recommended by NAGCAT. CONCLUSIONS Children on farms are involved in tractor work at a young age and some are involved in jobs that they are unlikely to have the developmental abilities to perform. NAGCAT is a new parental resource that can be applied to these work situations.