The Irish Health and Safety Authority has published a Code of Practice which provides practical guidance to farmers and others working in the agricultural sector on how to avoid occupational injuries and illnesses. The farmyard has traditionally been regarded as one of the two most dangerous types of workplaces in Ireland, with over 3,000 accidents occurring each year.
In 2005, the Irish government enacted legislation to update Ireland’s occupational health and safety laws. Section 60 of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 gave the Irish Health and Safety Authority (HSA) power to develop codes of practice, which would allow employers employing three or fewer people to adopt the code of practice as their safety management system, rather than having to write individual safety statements.
Working with farmers’ representative organisations and other groups active in promoting health and safety in the sector, the HSA developed and has now published the Code of Practice for the prevention of accidents and occupational ill-health in agriculture; a draft of the Code (9.7Mb PDF) is available online.
Content of code
The Code of Practice for the prevention of accidents and occupational ill-health in agriculture comprises three documents, namely:
- the code itself, which is a detailed document with information and guidance on farm safety;
- a risk assessment document, which should – with minor adjustments – cover most of the risks that farmers are likely to meet in their day to day work;
- a ‘Safe system of work plan’ pictogram document, specifically designed for the agricultural sector.
The code addresses safety management, preventing injuries and ill-health, child safety, safety of older farmers, risks and safety measures when operating vehicles and machinery, preventing accidents in farmyards and buildings, safety and health problems related to slurry storage and agitation, and a number of other safety issues including required competences for people working on a farm and training.
In developing the code of practice, the HSA adapted its award-winning Safe system of work plan, which was first prepared for the construction sector. The plan provides a pictogram system of safety management designed to ensure that workers understand the risks associated with a task to be undertaken, and to ensure that safe systems of work are in place. Furthermore, the code includes a detailed annex on farm accidents and ill-health statistics, and another one on health and safety legislation.
To accompany the code of practice, the HSA’s Farm Safety Partnership Advisory Committee has released a DVD: FARMSAFE – a guide to managing safety and health on your farm.
The risk assessment document is a model of simplicity and well illustrated. Although not entirely exhaustive, the document lists most of the risks likely to be encountered by farmers in a working year. The farmer completing the document can decide whether the risk applies to his or her farm and, if it does, what action needs to be taken.
Research on risks in farming
The need for measures to improve health and safety performance in the agricultural sector is clear, based on a review of published research, particularly national farm safety surveys. In all, three such surveys have been carried out at five-yearly intervals since 1991, in conjunction with the annual National Farm Survey of the Irish Agriculture and Food Development Authority (Teagasc).
The surveys reveal that about 3,100 accidents occur each year on Irish farms. The latest survey, from 2001, shows that the number of farm accidents has risen by 50% since the mid 1990s. The most common causes of non-fatal accidents are:
- livestock (27%);
- trips and falls (23%);
- tractors and machinery (19%);
- farmyard hazards (22%).
The Code of Practice also quotes research by Eamon O’Shea of the Department of Economics in the National University of Ireland Galway. Mr O’Shea found that male farmers aged between 15 and 64 years have a much higher death rate than other workers. The HSA has established, from its own analysis of the fatal accidents reported to the Authority, that a high proportion of deaths in the sector are among older farmers, namely those aged over 65 years.
Moreover, HSA data show that the agricultural sector consistently has the highest rate of worker fatalities in the three-year period 2003–2005, with 51 people being killed during this period (for details, see Summary of fatality, injury and illness statistics 2004–2005).
Further research carried out at the National University of Ireland Galway (Hope et al, 1999) is also cited in the code to underline that farmers do not give adequate attention to their health.
Available to all farmers
Speaking at the Irish National Ploughing Championships in September 2006, the Minister for Labour Affairs, Tony Killeen, announced that a copy of the code would be sent to every farmer in the country. There are over 100,000 farmers in Ireland, representing 5% of Ireland’s total labour force of two million workers.
Herbert Mulligan, IRN Publishing