The Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) is a program funded by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) that monitors acute traumatic occupational deaths and identifies contributing factors. Click here to be directed to the main NIOSH FACE program page.
FACE is a research program. The staff does not enforce compliance with either state or federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standards nor do they determine blame. Information collected through FACE is used to identify factors or trends that can be used to make recommendations to reduce the risk of similar deaths. Identifying information for employees or employers is not included in the published FACE reports. Click here to see how NIOSH uses FACE data in its published reports.
At the national level, NIOSH FACE began collecting voluntary fatality information in 1982. NIOSH then funded state-based programs where FACE fatality information was collected beginning in 1989. Currently, the states that manage FACE programs include California, Iowa, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, and Washington. State FACE programs are typically managed by state departments of health or labor. Click here if you are interested in contacting the staff collecting FACE information for a specific state.
FACE reports can be viewed based on specific criteria. Click here to view reports indexed according to location of incident, industry, cause, and population. The reports most relevant to agriculture are indexed by industry (e.g., agriculture, youth agriculture, etc.) and cause (e.g., confined spaces, machine-farming, etc.). View the “What’s New” section to view recent reports based on a specific month and year, or visit the state FACE report map to obtain fatality reports on a state-to-state basis.
Examples of agricultural resources created by FACE include the following:
Iowa FACE – Prevent Fatalities from Grain Entrapments
New York FACE – Fatal Injuries among Animal Handlers in New York State
Washington FACE – Hazards to Orchard Tractor and Machinery (English or Spanish)