Vol 3., No. 1, February 2002

 Contents

THOUGHTS & QUOTES

Was It Really an Accident?

The National Safety Council, The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and other safety organizations are discouraging use of the term accident. Use of the term accident implies that the situation was outside of human control and influence and that nothing could have been done to prevent the incident. When in fact these situations are preventable or controllable.

The most 'bizarre' situation that I have encountered in my years of working with farm safety involved twin boys playing with a cattle prod. The 4-year old boys were zapping things with the cattle prod. They went to play near where their father was filling the LP tank on his pickup. The vapors, being heavier than air, were along the ground. A spark from the cattle prod resulted in an explosion that severely burned the boys. This situation no doubt had a newspaper headline of "Boys Burned in Freak Accident." Since the 3 elements of the fire triangle were all in place (fuel, oxygen, and heat) there was nothing freak about the situation. Looking back over the chain of events, it certainly could have been prevented.

[top]

Publication Update

Tractor Safety

Publications on EDIS. Safer Tractor Operations for Agricultural Employers is a comprehensive 35 page publication that includes: foundations of tractor safety; hand signals; operator checklists and training certificates; instructions for conducting a tractor rodeo; and pre-post test questions (with answers!). It can be found at: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/AE195
Parts of this publication have been developed into 1-2 page fact sheets for those that don't require the full package. The fact sheets on EDIS to date are:

Chain Saw Safety Fact Sheet on EDIS & PowerPoint Available on CD

A fact sheet on chain saw safety is at: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/AE186 we, at present do not have it on the website to download (due to the amount of time it takes to download), we will be happy to send you a CD of it if you are interested.

Children

Just a reminder (and for new agents) about the publications about children and safety. Note that Childproofing is not just for farm kids.

[top]

Resources/Videos/Requests

I have several new safety videos related to tractors, vehicle maintenance, ag back injury prevention, heat stress, PPE, and vehicle operation safety. Please call or e-mail me with your programming needs and we can find those that are right for your audience. I just received copies of the video, "In the Blink of an Eye" which is targeted for motor vehicle drivers and shows the hazards of slow moving vehicles (such as tractors and machinery).

We still have a supply of Safety Jeopardy Manuals on hand for anyone that is interested in receiving one.

An agent requested information to use for conducting an ATV safety session. Since there may be others interested in ATV information fyi: these are 2 excellent sites with a lot of great information (including checklists to determine when a person is ready to use an ATV).

If you conduct an ATV safety session, I do have a jello brain mold that you can borrow to use for demonstrating helmet safety.

[top]

National Meeting in Florida

Join us for the National Institute for Farm Safety's (the farm safety & health specialist professional organization)annual meeting. This year we are meeting at Ponte Vedra Beach, FL June 23-27th. Anyone interested in more information, please feel free to contact me. The theme is: "A Safer You in 2002: Ride the Wave!"

[top]

SAFETY NEWS & NOTES is an e-mail newsletter prepared by Carol J. Lehtola, Extension Agricultural Safety Specialist and team leader for the Prevention and Preparedness: Agricultural Safety & Disaster Management program. Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, UF/IFAS. If you have safety- or disaster-related questions or ideas that you would like to share with other agents, please contact Dr. Lehtola. If you know someone interested in receiving this newsletter, we will gladly add them to the e-mail list. Past issues of Safety News & Notes are archived on the Florida AgSafe Web site.