free information – agriculture- Hazards at harvest

In the past five years, 82 workers suffered fatal injuries between July and October, with deaths during these four months accounting for almost half of all deaths in agriculture since 2004/05.The ‘Make The Promise. Come Home Safe’ campaign, which launched in November last year, generated almost 7000 supportive responses from farmers.The HSE’s head of safety for agriculture, Alan Plom, said: “Farm work is one of the UK’s most dangerous ways to make a living and never is this more evident than during harvest, when farmers are working to immense time pressures. There is always the temptation to cut corners when it comes to safety.“Our message to farmers is to stop and think. Stopping a machine and making sure it comes to a standstill costs nothing more than a few seconds of time. Those seconds may prevent an injury that lasts a lifetime.”For a safer harvest season, farmers can take some simple measures:

• Check and, if necessary, adjust your tractors’ handbrakes – one in eight handbrakes on tractors are defective;
• Before you attempt to clear a blockage on a machine make sure it is always brought to a complete stop, the handbrake applied, and the engine shut off;
• Check that the guards covering dangerous parts of machinery, such as chains and sprockets, vee belts and pulley drives, are in place on all your machines, including augers and graders; and
• deaths and injuries happen when people are rushing to get the job done and trying to make up time after bad weather conditions or breakdowns – take a few seconds before you act.

For more information on managing health and safety in agriculture, the free guide Farmwise is available at www.hse.gov.uk/welsh/publications.htm