Farmers at Risk - All the Time

For many of us city slickers, farms aren't much more than a pastoral landscape as we take our country drives on Sundays; maybe, at best, we think of the food that comes to our tables. But as dangerous places??

Farm accidents don't really count as workplace injuries, do they?...  You wouldn't think so, given that they are not covered by some workers compensation programs, and many national statistics-gathering bodies don't include agricultural accidents and illnesses in their OHS numbers.

But take a look at the average day on a working farm, and you'll see staggering risks, including:

• Heat-related illness (dehydration, heat stroke, even death)
• Cold-related illness (hypothermia, slides/falls due to ice, snow)
• Transportation and heavy-machinery accidents (starting at a young age)
• Amputations and other injuries working with tools
• Back strain and other injures working with farm animals
• Skin, eye and respiratory irritation from working with pesticides and herbicides such as sulfur
• Chornic illness, including cancers, from working with methyl bromide, chlorpyrifos, diazinon and other chemical

 I don't know about you, but looking at this preliminary list of risks around the farm, I'm shocked - and even more so, by the fact that there is very little in place, legislatively or procedurely, to keep farmers safe.

I met a man recently who worked in the Niagara area alongside migrant workers picking fruit - and he noted that most of them used bicycles to travel around the farms of their employers. Problem was, these bikes were not in good working order, lacked night lights, and the workers didn't have access to bike helmets. As a result, lots of accidents - some fatal - happened regularly with bicycling farm hands.

Why should people who work with their hands in the great outdoors be any less protected from getting hurt or sick than those of us working in urban centres?

Do you know of any farm accidents that could have been prevented? Any solutions to getting this sector of employment "up to code' on health and safety?