The Pennsylvania Agromedicine Program, located at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, is an activity of the Department of Family and Community Medicine as part of The Center for Primary Care at Penn State College of Medicine.

The Program staff have backgrounds in family medicine, preventive medicine, pediatrics, veterinary medicine and toxicology. Colleagues in medical center departments and the land grant university campus at University Park provide access to a broad range of medical, health, and agricultural sciences. Relationships with local primary care physicians throughout Pennsylvania serving as Agromedicine Consultant Physicians provide medical outreach to community programs.

The Program sponsors initiatives which facilitate communication and address specific needs evolving in environmental medical education and services. Medical expertise is provided to other partner programs and to the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.

Pennsylvania has 49 of its 67 counties designated as rural, and agriculture is its premier industry Agriculture also ranks number one as the nation's most dangerous profession. According to the National Safety Council, growers and farm workers earn their living in a sector of the economy where one person in 2,000 people dies as a result of an occupational accident. The agriculture work place is unique in that families including children are at the worksite. In addition, other rural residents are also exposed to hazards due to their proximity to the industry.

Agricultural medicine programs involve activities such as consultations; pesticide poisoning; occupational safety; other clinical problems of rural populations; public educational programs; food and environmental protection; epidemiologic research in areas such as pesticide effects, morbidity and mortality in rural areas, and stress in farm families.

The Pennsylvania Agromedicine Program was established by Memorandum of Understanding between the College of Medicine and The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture in September 1994. Initial program development began in July 1995.

The Agromedicine Program collaborates with the Pennsylvania Department of Health (PDH), the Penn State College of Agriculture Science, the Pennsylvania College of Health and Human Development, and other Penn State activities such as the Cooperative Extension Service. The program also relates to other College of Medicine departments. The Agromedicine Program also relates to other medical and health care educational programs and farm organizations. Funding is provided by Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture. The Agromedicine Program is located in the Center for Primary Care of the College of Medicine.

The presence of the Agromedicine Program in the Penn State Center for Primary Care is a natural one. The developing projects are complementary to the statewide Pennsylvania Area Health Education Center (PA AHEC) and the Robert Wood Johnson (RWJ) Generalist Physician Initiative. The statewide educational structure in place by virtue of the AHEC program is being utilized by the Agromedicine Program. The additional resources as supplied by; the Agromedicine Program are helping to increase our educational and research outreach into the rural and medically underserved areas of the state thereby increasing much needed access to medical services and education.

In our experience in Pennsylvania we have found that there are many physicians and other health care professionals with interest in Agricultural medicine and rural health. However there is little communication between these individuals and in general they are not knowledgeable about many medical related activities such as agriculture safety, pesticide education, agricultural rehabilitation, and hazards regulation.