By Melissa Patrick
Kentucky Health News
Growing up on a farm gives children the opportunity to play in ways that few others get to experience, and gain a set of useful skills, but agricultural safety experts caution that farm life also comes with safety challenges that all too often can result in injury or even death.
According to the National Ag Safety Database, 33 children sustain agriculture-related injuries every day, and every three days a child dies from an agriculture-related incident.
"A lot of these ag-related injuries, work-related injuries in ag, are related to the fact that children are doing work that does not match their capabilities or their abilities," youth agricultural safety specialist Marsha Salzwedel said at the Child Agricultural Injury Prevention Workshop in Lexington Aug. 6-7.
The three most common causes of non-fatal injuries are falls, animals and machinery, such as tractors; and the top three causes of fatal injuries are machinery, other vehicles and drowning.
Salzwedel, of the National Children's Center for Rural and Agricultural Health and Safety, added that advances in technology are changing the types of farm injuries found in children. She told the story of a child who lost an eye after being hit by a drone.
Salzwedel suggested that parents use the updated Agricultural Youth Work Guidelines to help determine if a youth has both the physical and cognitive ability to safely perform a job.
The guidelines provide a checklist for 51 agriculture-related jobs that details what youth between the ages of 7 and 16 need to be able to do to perform a job safely. It also states the adult's responsibilities, provides suggestions for the level of adult supervision needed and list hazards and protective strategies.
Salzwedel noted that tractors are the number one cause of fatalities for youth and children, but added that ATVs and skid steer loaders "are coming up fast behind them."
The National Children's Center for Rural and Agricultureal Health and Safety reports that tractors are responsible for more than 40% of unintentional farm injury deaths of children under 15. It also reports that four out of five farm children regularly ride on them.
Besides turning over, CultivateSafety.org says there are many ways a rider can get injured while riding on a tractor including, "sudden stops, driving over holes, stumps and debris, or a sharp turn can cause the extra rider to fall." It adds that tractors with cabs are also not safe, as there are incidents of children falling out of the cab after falling against the door
The Childhood Agricultural Safety Network, a 60 member coalition that includes American Farm Bureau, has launched a Keep Kids Away from Tractors Campaign that includes the message: "It's easier to bury a tradition than a child."
Dennis Murphy, professor emeritus from Penn State University, said ATVs present a number of safety challenges when it comes to keeping kids safe on farms For example, he noted that all too often young children are at risk of getting hurt on them because they are driving a machine that is too big for them, riding with passengers, not wearing helmets, operating on paved roads, which they are not designed for, or driving on slopes and uneven ground.
He added that a recent survey shows that upwards of 90% of youth say they drive an adult sized machine and that another study found that 90% of kids have never received any training on ATV use.
Murphy also noted that 60% of child ag-related injuries happen to children who are not working, including infants, toddlers and pre-schoolers.
Murphy stressed that "childcare is the best option" to keep children safe on farms, but said when this isn't possible it's important to provide a "safe play area" for them.
The National Children's Center for Rural and Agricultural Health and Safety offers an online book that details how to create safe play areas on farms. A few of the suggestions include making sure the play area has designated physical boundaries that is away from traffic and machinery; that it has age-appropriate equipment for the children who are using it and that it has competent supervision.
Several of the speakers noted that some of the challenges in trying to get parents and farm supervisors to create a safer farming culture for children is that they often underestimate the injury risk or assume that decisions around safety are "obvious" or are "common sense." There is also a belief that "it will happen to someone else."
Joe Grzywacz, a professor at Florida State University who has done research on immigrant farm-workers and their families, said, "Families don't think of this as an occupational risk, they are thinking about this as . . . this is the way we live our lives."
Kentucky Health News
Growing up on a farm gives children the opportunity to play in ways that few others get to experience, and gain a set of useful skills, but agricultural safety experts caution that farm life also comes with safety challenges that all too often can result in injury or even death.
According to the National Ag Safety Database, 33 children sustain agriculture-related injuries every day, and every three days a child dies from an agriculture-related incident.
"A lot of these ag-related injuries, work-related injuries in ag, are related to the fact that children are doing work that does not match their capabilities or their abilities," youth agricultural safety specialist Marsha Salzwedel said at the Child Agricultural Injury Prevention Workshop in Lexington Aug. 6-7.
The three most common causes of non-fatal injuries are falls, animals and machinery, such as tractors; and the top three causes of fatal injuries are machinery, other vehicles and drowning.
Salzwedel, of the National Children's Center for Rural and Agricultural Health and Safety, added that advances in technology are changing the types of farm injuries found in children. She told the story of a child who lost an eye after being hit by a drone.
The guidelines provide a checklist for 51 agriculture-related jobs that details what youth between the ages of 7 and 16 need to be able to do to perform a job safely. It also states the adult's responsibilities, provides suggestions for the level of adult supervision needed and list hazards and protective strategies.
Salzwedel noted that tractors are the number one cause of fatalities for youth and children, but added that ATVs and skid steer loaders "are coming up fast behind them."
The National Children's Center for Rural and Agricultureal Health and Safety reports that tractors are responsible for more than 40% of unintentional farm injury deaths of children under 15. It also reports that four out of five farm children regularly ride on them.
Besides turning over, CultivateSafety.org says there are many ways a rider can get injured while riding on a tractor including, "sudden stops, driving over holes, stumps and debris, or a sharp turn can cause the extra rider to fall." It adds that tractors with cabs are also not safe, as there are incidents of children falling out of the cab after falling against the door
The Childhood Agricultural Safety Network, a 60 member coalition that includes American Farm Bureau, has launched a Keep Kids Away from Tractors Campaign that includes the message: "It's easier to bury a tradition than a child."Dennis Murphy, professor emeritus from Penn State University, said ATVs present a number of safety challenges when it comes to keeping kids safe on farms For example, he noted that all too often young children are at risk of getting hurt on them because they are driving a machine that is too big for them, riding with passengers, not wearing helmets, operating on paved roads, which they are not designed for, or driving on slopes and uneven ground.
He added that a recent survey shows that upwards of 90% of youth say they drive an adult sized machine and that another study found that 90% of kids have never received any training on ATV use.
Murphy also noted that 60% of child ag-related injuries happen to children who are not working, including infants, toddlers and pre-schoolers.
Murphy stressed that "childcare is the best option" to keep children safe on farms, but said when this isn't possible it's important to provide a "safe play area" for them.
The National Children's Center for Rural and Agricultural Health and Safety offers an online book that details how to create safe play areas on farms. A few of the suggestions include making sure the play area has designated physical boundaries that is away from traffic and machinery; that it has age-appropriate equipment for the children who are using it and that it has competent supervision.
Several of the speakers noted that some of the challenges in trying to get parents and farm supervisors to create a safer farming culture for children is that they often underestimate the injury risk or assume that decisions around safety are "obvious" or are "common sense." There is also a belief that "it will happen to someone else."
Joe Grzywacz, a professor at Florida State University who has done research on immigrant farm-workers and their families, said, "Families don't think of this as an occupational risk, they are thinking about this as . . . this is the way we live our lives."
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