farmsafety
FARSHA fills serious need
Variety of programs and services available to help growers reduce the risk of injury and death. By Lyonel Doherty
M
any tree fruit and berry growers in British Columbia realize the economic value of reducing injuries on their farms, but more work needs to be done to keep new hires safe, according to the Farm and Ranch Safety and Health Association (FARSHA).
Executive director Bruce Johnson says the most critical time for a worker is during the first few weeks on the job. This worker might be inexperienced, out of condition and feel uncomfortable asking questions.
“New workers need to be trained, they need to know the hazards of the workplace and how to deal with them . . . and most of all they need to feel that there is someone concerned for their safety.”
FARSHA can assist growers with their new-employee orientations in the language of choice. It can help with risk assessments to identify hazards and make recommendations. Most important, the association can assist employers with their due diligence responsibilities to ensure the health and safety of their workers.
Headquartered in Langley, FARSHA provides health and safety services to B.C. agriculture via training programs, consultations and site evaluations. Its mission is to reduce the number of accidents on farms and ranches in BC. The association has regional safety consultants who visit farms to help growers with specific health and safety issues. If you need an action plan to address hazards, a consultant is only a phone call away. FARSHA constantly analyzes data to determine injury trends, and then develops training programs and resources to minimize risks. For example, in the fruit-growing sector, workers falling off orchard ladders contribute to 40 percent of the total injuries per year, Johnson says. To deal with this, FARSHA has a consultant, Carol Reid, dedicated solely to orchards and vineyards. Through visitations and workshops, Reid coaches employees in the proper methods of working with ladders.
Bruce Johnson
Johnson says the hazards associated with blueberry, raspberry and strawberry production are heat exhaustion and dehydration, as well as soft tissue injuries from heavy lifting or repetitive motion. On berry farms that have washing and packing lines, you run the risk of injury if machines are not properly guarded, Johnson says.
8 British Columbia Berry Grower • Spring 2010
Firefighters provide on-site instruction. This unconscious victim is a dummy — the next victim you see could be an injured employee.
“Occasionally, we still see questionable practices on some farms,” he points out, noting this is generally attributed to a lack of knowledge. However, Johnson says farmers and workers can get into situations where safety is compromised because of weather, rushing a job or failing to wear proper protective equipment.
One issue of concern for FARSHA is older tractors that do not have rollover protective structures (ROPS) to prevent crushing injuries and fatalities. Johnson says ROPS (with the use of seatbelts) are highly recommended because of the significant number of rollover fatalities that occur on farms. According to the Canadian Agricultural Safety Association (CASA), 216 people were killed in sideways rollover events from 1990-2004. Eighty-six percent of these rollovers involved tractors. CASA says most sideways rollovers occur near farm and rural roadways when a tractor is inadvertently driven too close to the edge of a ditch. FARSHA says if a tractor doesn’t have a ROPS or cannot be fitted with one, the vehicle should be taken out of service.
Johnson says the association faces a number of challenges. One primary challenge is helping employers to comply with B.C.’s comprehensive Occupational Health and Safety
Regulations, administered by WorkSafeBC. “The workforce is constantly changing, which creates new- worker orientation challenges, including providing it in several languages,” Johnson says.
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