Vol. 10, No. 1, January-February 2009

 Contents

 

 

 

THOUGHTS & QUOTES

Several of the articles in this issue deal with the topic of driving on public roadways. Including occupationally related driving, interacting with farm machinery on public roads, and the visibility limitations of tractor and heavy equipment operators.

Driving is an aspect of safety that brings "John Q. Public" into our workplace in a sense. Check past issues of SN&N for other driver’s training exercises and activities.

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NASD Survey

A brief (and I mean brief) survey has been posted on the National Agricultural Safety Database (NASD) home page at www.cdc.gov/nasd. If you could take a quick minute to answer a few questions about ways that NASD can help you better that would be great. Your input is appreciated.  Also a reminder that if you have new materials you would like to be considered for posting, let us know. Thanks!!

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Farm Safety Awareness Week, March 1-7

The Farm Bureau Farm Safety Awareness Week is March 1-7. This year’s theme is “Growing Our Most Important Crop”.

Highlighted topics include:

  • Anhydrous ammonia and propane cylinders
  • Practice caution around livestock on the farm and ranch
  • Just say ‘no’ to children playing around grain stored on the farm
  • Practice ‘tough love’ when it comes to extra riders on tractors

Materials, including fact sheets and information for media, are at: http://www.agsafetynow.com/

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Two New Videos on NASD

Two new videos can be viewed online in their entirety on the National Agricultural Safety Database (NASD).

We thank Illinois Farm Bureau for granting permission to include their video “In the Blink of an Eye.” This excellent video depicts the interaction between motorists and farm equipment on public roads. Any motorists who might be driving on rural roads should be encouraged to view this video. New drivers may find it especially helpful.

The video “Yearly OSHA Compliance Tractor Training” was produced by the Department of Environmental Health and Safety at the University of Florida. The video was produced to be used at the university’s research center farms.

New materials appear on a regular basis on NASD. For a quick glance, check out NASD's "What’s New" page.

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NIOSH Materials for Roadway Safety

“Buckle up” -- “Don’t drink and drive” -- “Speed shatters life” -- Thanks to decades of public safety campaigns, the importance of driving carefully and responsibly is widely recognized. NIOSH and its partners have focused on the prevention of roadway deaths and injuries as an occupational hazard where work involves driving or riding in a vehicle.

Motor-vehicle-related incidents are consistently the leading cause of work-related fatalities in the United States. Of approximately 5,700 fatalities annually reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 35% are associated with motor vehicles. Workers, families, businesses, and society all suffer the consequences of workplace crashes. Because rapid motorization and economic development go hand-in-hand, workers in the developing world are becoming increasingly vulnerable to the risk of road traffic crashes.

What complicates the problem further is that, unlike other workplaces such as factories, offices, and construction sites, the roadway is not a closed environment. Preventing work-related roadway crashes requires strategies that combine traffic safety principles, vehicle design, driver behavior, and good safety-management practices. It is important for employers to realize that although they cannot control roadway conditions, they can and should keep employees safe while driving. They can do so by maintaining work vehicles properly, providing and requiring the use of seat belts, providing motor vehicle safety training, and enforcing driver safety policies, among other steps.

Finally, NIOSH has many related resources for employers. NIOSH, in collaboration with the University of Illinois at Chicago, created an online library that houses resources related to the prevention of road traffic injuries and deaths while at work. The NIOSH fact sheet, Work-Related Roadway Crashes: Prevention Strategies for Employers provides recommendations for employers on crash prevention and vehicle safety programs. It is also available in Spanish. 

The NIOSH Motor Vehicle Safety Topic Page provides links to an extensive list of NIOSH and other resources on this topic. (Adapted from Feb. 3, 2009 NIOSH eNews)

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Construction Equipment Visibility Topic Page

NIOSH has created a page about Construction Equipment Visibility on its Highway Work Zone Safety Topic Pages. Although this page has an emphasis on construction equipment, it also includes equipment that may be used in agriculture. Another Web site, Blind Spots Illustrated, includes visibility zones using a farm tractor and a combine as examples.

NIOSH has added a new safety and health topic page on blind areas around construction equipment for safety personnel and instructors to raise awareness on the hazards of working around construction vehicles and equipment. Blind area diagrams for 38 types of construction equipment are available for download or print.

A blind area diagram is a detailed visual representation of the area around a vehicle or piece of equipment that cannot be seen from the operator’s position. A portion of one of the diagrams is shown below. The shadow in the middle of the diagram is a backhoe loader. The gray areas show the areas that a driver of this vehicle cannot see. The orange shaded area shows areas that the driver can see in the vehicle's mirror's.

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Agrisafe Elluminate Sessions On-line

Agrisafe is a network representing health professionals who provide ag occupational health and safety services to farmers and their families. Over the past few years Agrisafe has been offering on-line seminars covering a variety of topics through a Web service called Elluminate. Past sessions are archived on their Web site. Upcoming "Webinar" topics include:

  • Reaching Teen Workers through High School ESL Classes (April 21)
  • Helping Farm People Manage Their Behavioral Health (May 12)

Other sessions are scheduled at 1-2 month intervals.

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Airboat Safety

One of our Florida Extension agents recently asked for information about airboat safety. If one had this question, others may also need the information. Some good sources of information about this topic can be found in:

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SAFETY NEWS & NOTES is an e-mail newsletter prepared by Carol J. Lehtola, Extension Agricultural Safety Specialist and team leader for the Prevention and Preparedness: Agricultural Safety & Disaster Management program. Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, UF/IFAS. If you have safety- or disaster-related questions or ideas that you would like to share with other agents, please contact Dr. Lehtola. If you know someone interested in receiving this newsletter, we will gladly add them to the e-mail list. Past issues of Safety News & Notes are archived on the Florida AgSafe Web site.