La salute occupazionale in agricoltura in Italia

The study aims 10 provide a definition of the heahh conditions of Italian agricultural workers through a review of official information sources. In western countries, the agricultural population is healthier than the general one, especially with regard to coronary heart disease, COPD and cancer mortality, with a few excesses due to soft tissue sarcomas, lymphomas, gastric and skin cancer. The frequency of work injuries in this sector is high, second only to the construction sector. The agricultural workforce is composed of a significant proportion of illegal and seasonal workers, and still includes many officially retired people. The priorities in this sector therefore regard the development of training programmes and the preparation of tools which are suitable for improving data gathering and analysis (sector risk profiles).