Common Orchard Hazards
and Conditions

Health Hazard Facts: The combination of overwork, physical load, terrain, weather conditions and other factors result in a number of orchard-related health problems. The chart below shows the leading work-related health center visits among farmworkers in ME, MA, CT, NY, NJ, PA and MD identified through chart review between 2001-2003 by NEC researchers.

In this analysis, muscle strain is the dominant problem. However other studies that collect data from hospitals or Worker’s Compensation data have found higher rates of traumatic injury (e.g., Hofmann, Snyder and Keifer, 2006).