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Vol. 10, No. 6, August 2009
Contents
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THOUGHTS & QUOTES
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…the "good
ol' days"?...
I often enjoy a program on
the History Channel called Modern Marvels. One episode includes
a segment on the time when horses
were replaced by tractors. It reminds me of of an event I
regularly attended while growing up -- the Western Minnesota
Steam Thresher's Reunion. It started in 1940, and steam threshing
was an out-of-date technology. But the old machines were still
hanging around, and so were a few people who still knew how to
use them. The event continues today -- every Labor Day weekend.
Of course, it includes a lot more than steam threshing. But
one does see tenderly loved machines being stoked with coal and
belching smoke and steam.
"Old-time farming"
events similar to the Steam Thresher's Reunion are held in various
parts of the country, throughout the summer and into the fall.
You'll see demonstrations of threshing and other farm practices
using the big old steam engines or early gasoline-powered tractors.
What you won't see are safety features. No guards over PTO shafts
or their predecessors, the 40-foot drive belts with all their
exposed gears and pulleys. No rollover protection. No lighting
and marking. For all their ingenuity, those machines took a lot
of fingers, limbs, and lives.
Then think about today's farm
equipment coming off the assembly lines all over the country
-- each one with excellent safety features built right in! Now
that's a modern marvel! We often talk about the mechanical revolution
in agriculture, but what about the safety revolution!
It's fun to 'reminisce'…
but should we really call them the "good ol' days."
As we all keep working to make agriculture the safe and rewarding
industry it ought to be, I look forward to "better days
ahead!"
Go ahead and reminisce... visit
the Western Minnesota Steam Thresher’s Reunion on the Web
at: http://www.rollag.com/.
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[top]
National
Farm Safety & Health Week September 20-26, 2009
[top]
National
Safety Council's Death By Cell Phone Campaign
| "Death
by Cell Phone"
is the title of a new billboard advertisement the National Safety
Council has launched. Sponsored by Nationwide Insurance Co. and
Lamar Advertising, the billboards feature Linda, a 61-year-old
wife, mother, and grandmother from Oklahoma, and Joe, a 12-year-old
boy from Michigan, with one tragic thing in common: both were
killed in car crashes caused by drivers using cell phones. |
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Safety Trivia
(Automobiles)
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1. The First Rear-View Mirror
The rear-view mirror's earliest
known use and mention is by Dorothy Levitt in her 1906 book The
Woman and the Car. Levitt noted that women should "carry
a little hand-mirror in a convenient place when driving"
so they may "hold the mirror aloft from time to time in
order to see behind while driving in traffic," thereby inventing
the rear view mirror before it was introduced by automobile manufacturers
in 1914. The earliest known rear-view mirror mounted on a motor
vehicle appeared in Ray Harroun's Marmon racecar at the inaugural
Indianapolis 500 race in 1911. Although Harroun's is the first
known use of such a mirror on a motor vehicle, Harroun himself
claimed he got the idea from a mirror used for the same purpose
on a horse-drawn vehicle in 1904. -- more at Wikipedia
2. The "Accidental"
Invention of Safety Glass
Today, safety glass, which
will not splinter when exposed to shock, is everywhere -- in
windshields for cars, goggles for machinists, and windows and
doors for many public buildings. Essential as it is, safety glass
was the result of a clumsy mistake. Edouard Benedictus, a French
scientist, was working in his laboratory. The year was 1903.
Benedictus climbed a ladder to fetch reagents from a shelf and
inadvertently knocked a glass flask to the floor. He heard the
glass shatter, but when he glanced down, to his astonishment
the broken pieces of the flask still hung together, more or less
in their original contour.
On questioning an assistant,
Benedictus learned that the flask had recently held a solution
of cellulose nitrate, a liquid plastic, which had evaporated,
apparently depositing a thin coating of plastic on the flask's
interior. Because the flask appeared clean, the assistant, in
haste, had not washed it but returned it directly to the shelf.
-- more at Ideafinder.com
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Dairy &
Livestock Safety Issues
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South Dakota State University
Extension Fact Sheet 950, "Safety
Risk Areas at the Dairy Farm," is a 7-page publication
which provides a comprehensive look at the hazards associated
with all aspects of dairy farming. Some topics included are slips
& falls, traffic, silage piles, handling manure, handling
sick animals, machinery, power tools, and chemicals and veterinary
drugs. The publication was made possible through "A
Farm Safety Training Program on Human Risk Management for Dairy
Producers Using a Labor Force Including Hispanic Workers Project."
Horizontal silos are low and
long systems for storing forage. They may be referred to as trench,
pit, pile, stack, or bunker silos. Working around these systems
safely is the topic of "Horizontal
Silo Safety," publication E49 from Pennsylvania
State University Extension. http://www.abe.psu.edu/ASH/ASHTeam.html
The CDC's Morbidity and Mortality
Weekly Report (MMWR) for July 31, 2009 discusses deaths caused
by working with or around cattle. The MMWR article, "Fatalities
Caused by Cattle - Four States, 2003-2008" includes
illustrative case reports.
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[top]
Lock-Out/
Tag-Out
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Lock-out/Tag-out (LOTO) is
a procedure to insure that equipment being worked on is not started
up by someone else or by automatic start-up. This procedure helps
prevent mechanical and electrical injuries.
Failure to provide Lock-Out/
Tag-Out continues to be on OSHA's
Top 10 List of Safety Violations, ranking 4th in 2008.
Equipment should be locked
out while being repaired. Incidents which occur when machinery
is being repaired and is not locked out often result in serious
injuries like amputations, fractures, and even death. Locking
out and tagging power at its source is important while repairing
or adjusting machinery because it ensures that power does not
reach the machinery.
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[top]
Helmet Law
for Florida Young Horse Riders (Oct 1)
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The statute goes into effect
October 1st. Florida governor Charlie Crist signed the statute
this past June. It is known as "Nicole's Law" after
a 12-year-old Palm Beach County girl. Nicole was not wearing
a helmet the day in 2006 when she fell off a horse and hit her
head on a paved area of ground. Nicole was in a coma for 20 days
before she died.
The new law requires kids younger
than 16 to wear helmets approved by the American Society of Testing
and Materials and that are property fitted and fastened securely
when riding horses in certain circumstances:
- On a public road or right
of way
- On a public equestrian trail,
public recreational trail, public park, or preserve, or public
school site, or any other publicly controlled property.
- Trainers, instructors, supervisors
and others may not knowingly rent or lease an equine to be ridden
by a child younger than 16 unless the child has a helmet meeting
the requirements of this law. If the child does not have such
a helmet, the trainer, instructor, supervisory or other person
who rents or leases the equine must supply such a helmet for
the child.
- Parents or guardians of children
younger than 16 cannot authorize or knowingly allow a child to
violate this law.
- This law does not apply when
the child is practicing for, riding to or from, or competing
or performing in shows or events, including, but not limited
to rodeos and parades, where helmets are not historically a part
of the show or event.
- It also does not apply when
the child is riding on privately owned land.
- It does not apply when the
child is engaged in an agricultural practice or pursuit.
For more information, see the
news article "Helmets
now required by young riders of horses" from the St.
Petersburg Times.
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Safety Photos
on Navy Web site
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you need photos to add to your safety presentations, the Naval
Safety Center is a great resource. It gives new meaning to showing
how people will "go to great lengths to reach new heights!"
Start with the Picture
of the Week, but if you take a few minutes to look through
the archives, you can find unsafe practices depicted for almost
any topic. Motorcycles, ladders, emergency exit access, locked
up fire extinguishers etc, etc, etc. |
[top]
Abbreviated
Version of "Creating Safe Play Areas on Farms"
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Due to the overwhelming number
of requests for an abbreviated resource to accompany its "Creating
Safe Play Areas on Farms" Booklet, the National Children's
Center for Rural and Agricultural Health and Safety has released
a "Creating Safe Play Areas on Farms 2009 Mini-edition"
in English and Spanish summarizing key elements to creating a
safe place for children to play. This new eight page-resource
contains information on selecting a play area, fencing and ground
surfacing and child development. This resource can be downloaded
at www.marshfieldclinic.org/safeplay
along with other Creating Safe Play Area information, including
the "Keys to Creating Safe Play Areas" site.
For more information on this
and other child safety resources, please visit the Web site of
the National
Children’s Center for Rural and Agricultural Health and
Safety.
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[top]
National
Fire Prevention Week October 4-10
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October is National Fire Prevention
Month with October 4-10 being National Fire Prevention Week.
The theme is "Stay
Fire Smart… Don't Get Burned."
Testing the water before putting
a child in the bath may sound like common sense. Wearing short
or close-fitting sleeves when cooking on the stovetop may show
foresight. These and other simple actions may be all it takes
to prevent devastating burns.
Fire Prevention Week 2009 focuses
on burn awareness and prevention, as well as keeping homes safe
from the leading causes of home fires.
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Grain Entrapments
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People just aren't aware of
the dangers of grain, and every year, farmers die or narrowly
escape death in grain storage bins. There has also been an increase
in cases of deaths/entrapments reported at commercial grain elevators.
A
recent news article from Delta Farm Press serves as a good
reminder of the dangers of handling grain.
Additional fact sheets and
information can be found at:
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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.
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