Farmers have the power to change behaviour and improve agricultural safety across Ireland and Northern Ireland, according to industry experts.
Farm workers were encouraged to stop and think about safety, and to take action to ensure safe working on their land, at an event staged by the Ireland and Northern Ireland branches of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH).
Around 120 delegates attended the event at Teagasc’s Ballyhaise Agricultural College, in Co Cavan, on Wednesday 11 November, to learn more about preventing common causes of injuries or deaths in agriculture.
Live demonstrations of best practice around chainsaws and tree felling, tractors, use of chemicals, animal management, farm building construction and electricity, and slurry management were explored with the help of experts from the college, Teagasc, Coillte and farm building management company Kilmoon Trading.
Liam Howe, Chair of IOSH Ireland Branch, said: “Agriculture, particularly in recent times, has had a very poor rate of accidents, deaths, injuries and ill health. Through this event we wanted to showcase some of the main issues and ways to improve farm safety.
“Hopefully the advice given to delegates will help to change the behaviour of farmers in their own workplaces. It is about changing the culture so that safety and health becomes a state of mind for farm workers.”
Richard McIvor, Chair of IOSH Northern Ireland Branch, said: “Farm safety is a significant issue both in Northern Ireland and the Republic. Both IOSH branches had the same goal to work together and share knowledge for all.
“By sharing advice we hope that farm workers will stop and think in order to prevent further deaths and serious injuries. It is also important for people to realise that children should be kept off the farm for their own safety.”
Fifteen people have died on Irish farms so far in 2015. Thirty other people were also killed working in agriculture in Ireland last year, including five children.
Sixty-seven people lost their lives in work-related farming incidents in Northern Ireland between 2004 and 2013, including five children aged under 11.
Both IOSH branches have been promoting farm safety through their activities in recent years and support the work being done by the Health and Safety Authority (HSA), Health and Safety Executive Northern Ireland (HSENI) and other organisations to raise awareness of the issue.
IOSH Northern Ireland has been actively supporting HSENI’s Farm Safety Action Plan. The strategy, which runs until March 2017, outlines how the regulator plans to support the local farming community promote safe working and good practice.
Keith Morrison, Chief Executive of HSENI, who spoke at the event, said: “While it is encouraging that awareness around farm safety has increased, farmers must now take the next step.
“They need to change how they do things so that every job, big or small, is done within a culture of safety first - every time. We can’t keep on losing lives every year through accidents that are completely preventable.”
Martin O’Halloran, CEO of the HSA, who also addressed delegates, said the consequences of not taking safety seriously can stay with farming families for generations.
He said: “When our inspectors go out and investigate the two words that almost universally characterise accidents are that they were ‘foreseeable’ and ‘preventable’.
“We say take action. You have enormous power over the outcomes for yourself and your family.”
The event was the first that the IOSH Ireland and Northern Ireland branches have jointly held on the issue of farm safety. They now plan to hold similar sessions at other locations.
The branches would like to thank Teagasc and Ballyhaise Agricultural College Principal John Kelly for the use of the college’s facilities and staff on the day.
IOSH is the Chartered body for health and safety professionals. With more than 44,000 members in 120 countries, we’re the world’s biggest professional health and safety organisation.
