NOVEMBER 2016 • COUNTRY LIFE IN BC BC farms stay focused on
safety as productivity surges Injuries are costly in many ways
by PETER MITHAM
ABBOTSFORD – BC agri- food exports hit a record high in 2015, with mushrooms second only to blueberries among the top fresh produce items shipped overseas. But mushroom production is a dangerous business, as the 2008 deaths of three workers at A-1 Mushroom Substratum Ltd. in Langley highlighted. (Two other workers were left with permanent brain damage following exposure to hydrogen sulfide in the incident.) More recently, two farms and a composting facility owned by Abbotsford grower Huu Quach hit the news in September over safety violations.
Yet the headlines obscure the fact that farm safety, for the most part, has improved in step with productivity. While farmers have made significant investments in equipment to cut labour costs, they’ve also taken steps with the help of WorkSafeBC and AgSafe (formerly FARSHA, the Farm and Ranch Health and Safety Association) to mitigate on- farm risks.
Claims for serious injuries have averaged 0.6 per 100 workers in the past five years, while overall injury claims have averaged 2.6 over the same period.
The sector’s average is slightly higher than the BC average, but the stable rate of injuries show that matters haven’t gotten worse. That’s partly a result of training by AgSafe, which trains workers’ to recognize potential risks. “We do the safety training,” says Wendy Bennett, executive director of AgSafe. “We’re not teaching people how to operate. We’re teaching them to make sure that they’re looking at all the safety pieces.”
This is especially important as mechanization increases. “We have had a huge demand, and it’s primarily for equipment safety training – so, forklifts and tractors,” she says. “Those are the two that we end up doing a lot of. Tractors, statistically, throughout North America, are responsible for the majority of fatalities in some way, shape or form.”
The number of equipment incidents are what prompted WorkSafeBC to focus on awareness initiatives
specifically designed for the agriculture sector.
“We were seeing a lot of serious injuries resulting from the use of machinery in the agriculture industry. We’re trying to bring some
education around that,” Doug Pasco, an industry specialist at WorkSafeBC assisting the agriculture sector, says. “We’ve partnered with some equipment dealerships to bring that information out there. We also partner with AgSafe.”
AgSafe provides the hands- on training that is beyond the mandate of WorkSafeBC, a regulatory agency that engages in inspections, investigations and compensation programs. This year, a particular focus has been ladder safety, a campaign originally developed for the construction sector but reoriented to farmers because of the significant number of incidents involving falls from heights.
Second only to
overexertion, falls from heights account for 15% of claims. When coupled with falls at grade, tumbles account for 29% of injury claims. By comparison, workers caught in, struck by, or otherwise engaged with a vehicle or
See SAFETY page 18
Cranberries were $2 a pound at this year’s Cranberry Festival in historic Fort Langley. According to government stats, only 1% of BC’s cranberry crop is sold fresh. 50% is used to make sweetened dried cranberries, 40% is made into juice and 9% is sold whole frozen. The one day annual event attracts up to 60,000 visitors to the shopping district. (Photo courtesy of Cranberries Naturally)
Worker dies on Surrey farm
SURREY – A farmer is dead following an accident involving equipment in Surrey on October 6. Kenneth Mark Nootebos, aged 51, of Surrey was part of a crew working on a mechanical beet-harvesting project on a vegetable farm located at 15675 40 Avenue. According to the BC Coroners Service, Nootebos became entrapped in some of the machinery. He was deceased at the scene “WorkSafeBC fatal and serious injury officers and prevention field officers are standing by,
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ready to investigate once the RCMP and coroner are finished with their investigation,” reported Scott Money, a spokesperson for WorkSafeBC.
The incident followed the serious injury in September of an orchardist who suffered multiple broken bones in his upper and lower body when he started a tractor that was still in gear.
“The worker was run over,” WorkSafeBC reports, bluntly.
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