Accidents with power tillers used for onion cultivation in Santa Catarina State, Brazil

Santa Catarina family farming plays an important role in the state's economy. Products such as onion have its centralized production in small farms that employ family labor. The increase in productivity in these small plots was only possible with the use of versatile agricultural machinery. The power tillers were instruments that enabled this progress and indirectly kept the farmer in the field. But, the intensive use of these machines without essential care for their operation can bring negative effects to the farmer's health. The growth of machine fleet and the need to expand production may explain the increase in the number of accidents with these machines in recent decades. This number is doubtful and the causes unknown, because they are not computed as work accidents. This research aims at characterizing the accidents, identifying the machines, the victim's profile and the circumstances in which they occurred. This research used semistructured questionnaires answered by 79 farmers. The statistical analysis used was the descriptive and variance analysis using Pearson's coefficient in the correlations. Possible correlations between the following variables were investigated: age of the victim, machine power, affected limb, severity of the accident, general and specific cause. The most susceptible age range was from 10 to 20 years (21.7%) the general cause was insecure act (60.8%) and the most cited specific causes were lack of attention (28.0%), loss of control uphill/downhill (23.3%), mechanical failure (12.7%), lack of protection (11.3%) and machine operation in extreme conditions (10.7%). The most significant correlations were between the age and unsafe act and the age and lack of attention.