Are our Farms Safe!

How safe is your Farm! The farm is one of the most dangerous places to work with one of the highest fatal accident rates of any employment. Between 1991 and 2000, 49 children and young persons died as a result of farm accidents. ( 15 of these were under the age of five.) These figures are from the Health & Safety Authority. The main causes were:

crushed by tractors and tractor-drawn machinery

contact with other agricultural machinery


Because farms are homes as well as workplaces, children are inevitably coming in contact with dangerous situations all the time. Most fatal accidents which occur to children on farms are as a result of their straying into areas where work is taking place. While parents are responsible for ensuring their children do not stray into dangerous areas, everybody working in agriculture, including contractors or other visiting workers, have responsibility under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act, 1989, for the safety and health of non-employees affected by their work activities. Irish Agriculture can be broken down into two areas as to why accidents are more likely to occur. Big changes now face agriculture .On one hand farmers are having to expand and become larger and more efficient because of the economic pressure being applied. Mechanisation has become a must. This means more and bigger machinery around the farm. Sourcing outside labour has also become difficult. This means farm work is mostly carried out by family members where possible. We see this around us every day on farms young family members 11, 12 yrs of age driving tractors around farmyards in order to help out. Another factor to bear in mind is the increase in part-time farming. Farmers are having to work outside the farm in order to be able to make a living. Coming home at 6pm on a winters evening and facing in to 2 hours of work around the farm yard in not an easy task Yet this is common place on many Irish farms today. This leads to people attempting to do jobs quicker and also may increase the risk of accidents. While farming faces all these changes we must be made more aware of farm safety. It cannot be over emphasised every farmer must examine his/her own conscious and ask themselves what can I do to make my farm a safer place. The following areas must be looked at -


Operating and travelling on machinery ( pto shafts )

Slurry pits, sheep dip tanks and open wells

Contact with animals ( eg Bulls & calved cows )

Water tanks , ponds and rivers

Hazardous substances

Falling from heights ( eg easy access to roofs etc )

Fire

In many instances family members carry out work activities on the family farm assisting a parent or other family member. These persons are not employees as defined in the legislation. However, they are equally exposed to the risks associated with those work activities. To comply with Section 12 (7)of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act, 1989, self employed farmers (the vast majority of farmers) must prepare a Safety Statement, based on an identification of the hazards and an assessment of the risks, so as to ensure their own safety and that of other persons (e. g. children or young persons assisting in work activities). Accordingly, in preparing such a Safety Statement a risk assessment must be carried out relating to all persons involved in work activities assisting farmers in the family farm setting. The Health & Safety Authority will assist you in doing this and have a code of practice for farmers. This may be accessed from their very informative web site at www.has.ie . This Code of Practice provides practical advice and guidance on how to reduce the risk of accidents on your farm. Farmers, like other employers and self-employed persons, have a legal obligation to prepare a Safety Statement. The Safety Statement is a document setting out how safety and health is to be managed on your farm. It will include looking at all hazards on the farm, with an assessment of the risk in relation to they causing injury. Where the risk of injury is high, it identifies control measures to eliminate/ reduce the risk.
In Conclusion we must all take responsibility for checking our farms for all hazardous situations. Its too late taking action after there has been an accident. Its only when there has been an accident that it really focuses the mind into taking corrective measures. The latest figures released (31 Dec 02) from Health & Safety Authority are encouraging when compared with the 2001 figures. There were 13 deaths in farming. This figure, which included two child deaths,represents a substantial decrease over 2001 figures where 24 people lost their lives as a result of accidents in the farming sector.We must not become complacent with these figures and we must aim to improve on these again this coming year. One death or serious injury is one too many. The Health & Safety Authority are making good progress in tackling farm accidents. Each year they are increasing their farm inspections and this has to be welcomed .This in turn will save lives which we will never be able to quantify.