NATIONAL JOURNAL FINDS:

Bassett Tractor-Rollbar

Program Saves Lives, $4M

COOPERSTOWN – From 2007 to 2017, at least 10 lives and more than $4 million were saved in New York State due to a Cooperstown-based program to retrofit tractors with rollover bars, an analysis in the American Journal of Public Health had concluded.

The analysis of the program, developed by Bassett Healthcare Network’s NYCAMH (New York Center for Agricultural Medicine & Health), found that a combination of social marketing and rebates saves lives and money.

Over the decade, the rollbars were affixed to 2,510 tractors built before 1995.

“The numbers are compelling,” Melvin Myers, the lead author, wrote in the Journal of Public Health, “and we hope other state governments and industry groups will use this information to develop or expand similar ROPS programs to benefit their agricultural communities.”

In a follow-up editorial, Linda Forst, University of Illinois/Chicago School of Public Health professor, said the problem is underappreciated around the world.  NYCAMH, based in Fly Creek, has proved “the goal of outfitting more than 80 percent of old tractors with ROPS is attainable and, now, demonstrably cost effective,” she wrote.  “It is certainly worth the price.”

Myers, who is with the Southeastern Coastal Center for Agricultural Safety & Health, University of Florida, Gainesville, has spent decades studying agriculture fatalities and advocating for programs to reduce risk through public health interventions like the one in New York.

“Our analysis clearly shows the social marketing campaign helped overcome many of the financial, logistical and perceptual barriers to retrofitting older tractors with rollbars. This was a surprise and in contrast to the limited success of education and community campaigns, and most tragically, widely disseminated information on known rollbar effectiveness,” says Myers.

NYCAMH’s rollbar program cost $1.7 million over a decade, and prevented an estimated $6 million in costs, a savings of about $4.24 million.  Projecting ahead, the program will save $12.1 million after 15 years, $15.7 million after 20 years and nearly $19 million after 25 years.

“The success in New York State is absolutely repeatable. Our goal is to share what we’ve learned from this analysis to benefit other states; we hope they will use the information to develop a retrofit program and ultimately prevent needless farm injuries and deaths,” says Julie Sorensen, NYCAMH director.

NYCAMH was established in the early 1980’s by Dr. John May and Dr. David Pratt, pulmonologists at Bassett Hospital, originally as the Bassett Farm & Safety Health Project, it was officially designated the New York Center for Agriculture & Medicine in 1988 with a mission of preventing and treating occupational injury and illness.