Penn State University, a virtuous example of agricultural safety

Dennis Murphy

Investing in the education of machinery users and in research on risk prevention is very important for reducing the number of deaths in the workplace and accidents in agriculture. The department of agrarian and biological engineering of the University of Pennsylvania has been developing an interesting programme for the past few years entitled: “Penn State Agricultural Safety and Health”, directed by Prof. Dennis Murphy.

Activities

The programme consists of numerous activities, including research projects aimed at reducing exposure to risks and initiatives to train young farmers to prevent accidents and deal with emergencies on the farm.

The website contains a yearly observatory of accidents (the latest figures referring to 2008), a two-monthly newsletter and numerous training brochures.

One of the most original initiatives is a team quiz on the subject of safety, aimed at students and offering cash prizes.

The Pesticide Education Program

Another interesting programme being developed by the department of agrarian and biological engineering is the Pesticide Education Program, designed to train youngsters on the use of crop protection products.

The programme sets out to teach the correct use of pesticides in order to protect both the environment and the health of farmworkers.

In addition to scientific research, the department also organises courses for the renewal of annual certification for machinery users.

Iowa: workplace deaths at lowest levels since 2001

Murray Madsen

In 2009 65 people died as a result of work-related accidents. This is the lowest number recorded since 2001 by the Iowa Fatality Assessment & Control Evaluation (IA FACE) conducted by the University of Iowa.

Murray Madsen, head of the Programme’s survey on traumas, commented: “We have only seen such low numbers twice since the programme began back in the mid-1990s. Although there might be a slight rise when year-end data come in, we can say right now that the drop in the number of work-related deaths in Iowa is positive news”.

Madsen believes that the fall is partly due to the economic crisis, with special reference to the drop in traffic volumes and thus a fall in road accidents.

Agriculture was again the sector posting the largest number of work-related deaths: 35% of the 2009 total.

On a positive note, there were fewer cases of overturning tractors, falls from heights and knock-downs involving farm machinery. Madsen recalled however that everybody has to work to reduce the number of accidents, in particular making farmworkers aware of the main risks they run.

Ireland: drop in fatal accidents, but agriculture still at risk

There has been a fall in the number of fatal industrial accidents in Ireland. According to the report presented in January 2010 by the Health and Safety Authority (HSA), in 2009 there were 43 fatal accidents in the workplace, the lowest number since studies began in 1991, when there were 73 deaths. In relation to the number of workers, the percentage of fatal accidents in these years has fallen from 6.31% to 2.23%.

Agriculture and building – the most dangerous sectors

Like in other European countries, agriculture is one of the working sectors most at risk: in 2009  alone there were 11 deaths in this sector, over 25% of the total. This did however mark a fall compared with the previous year, when 21 deaths were recorded.

The building industry had the second highest incidence of fatalities in 2009, with 10 work-related deaths.

According to the specialist journal Health and Safety Review one of the factors influencing this result is the fall in employment levels and in productive activities. The economic recession is not however the only factor behind this fall, according to the journal. Compared with a fall in GDP of 7.25% in 2009 compared with the previous year, there was a 24% fall in work-related deaths over the same period.

The Minister of State at the department of enterprise, trade and employment, Dara Calleary, said he was satisfied with this positive trend, even though now was not the time to be complacent. Credit for these results should go in the main to the successful collaboration between the Authority, enterprises and workers’ representatives.

Source: European Working Conditions Observatory (EWCO)

Farm safety

Flickr picture

Danger lurks around the corner

Fairly often a farm is not only the place where a family works, but it is also the place where a family lives.

This means that every member of the family is continuously exposed to the dangers of an environment where machines, chemicals, livestock and animal faeces are constantly present.

Two categories are at particular risk: children and elderly people.
Children often help out with the chores and, furthermore, they find the farm a wonderful playground. They are thus exposed to many dangers.

Kuopio Declaration: committed to safety

The Kuopio Declaration is two years old: on 23 August 2006 the 45 participants in the Nordic Meeting on Agricultural Occupational Health agreed to sign a joint declaration in which they reported the dangers of the agricultural industry and the increase of fatal injuries in Nordic countries, while proposing a series of actions to improve the situation.

On the occasion of the second anniversary of the Declaration we interviewed Peter Lundqvist, professor at the Department of Work Science, Business Economics and Environmental Psychology of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences at Alnarp.

Press clippings can help reduce agricultural accidents

According to information from the University of Iowa Great Plains Center for Agricultural Health (USA), press clippings help researchers categorize agricultural injuries and illnesses, which helps plan out new health and safety measures.

The Center began collecting clippings from across the US in 2002, scaled back to just four states (Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska) for a couple years, then decided to expand in 2007 to collect clippings for all 9-states of the upper Midwest: Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin.

FAO World Food Security Summit: any positive results?

The FAO World Food Security Summit was held in Rome from 3 to 5 June 2008.
After three days of meetings, the delegates of the 181 countries taking part in the event have drawn up a final declaration calling on the right to food. But not everyone is completely satisfied about the results.

Although the financial resources to fight hunger and boost agriculture in the countries hardly hit by the food crisis have been renewed, NGOs organizations do not approve the declaration stating that it only re-confirms the commitment that governments had already agreed on, but does not provide any specific guidelines. As a matter of fact, it is not clear how the financial aid will be spent in order to contain the food and energy crisis.

GAS Forum I at the Casa del Cinema (Rome, Italy)

Gas Forum I, the first Global Agricultural Safety Forum, will be held on 25 September 2008 in Rome, in the beautiful context of the Casa del Cinema, the first House of Cinema to be inaugurated in a Western capital city.

The Casa del Cinema is a 2,500 sq. m. venue hosted in the historical Casina delle Rose in Villa Borghese, one of Rome’s main parks, only 50 metres from via Veneto. The building has been entirely restored by the Municipality of Rome and boasts a superb 124-seat cinema theatre created by Deluxe and a smaller conference room (Sala Kodak, with 64 seats).

The Forum will take place in the Deluxe theatre and will be divided in two (morning and afternoon) sessions.

More information is available on the GAS Forum website.

Casa del cinema website (in Italian)