National Farm Safety and Health Week Sept. 16-22

Auburn, Sept. 7---Sept. 16-22 is National Farm Safety and Health Week in the United States. It's a week dedicated to providing safety and health information to farmers and ranchers across the country.

The theme for this year's event is Kids #1 in 2001!

Thousands of children are injured and hundreds are killed every year by farm hazards. Some of these children are work on the farm while others wander into trouble on their own or are invited into hazardous areas. The week will focus on keeping kids safe from the dangers encountered in farm work, including those stemming from transport on farm tractors, grain transportation in wagons, and activities in and around grain storage bins. Many young farm and ranch children are also at risk when assigned chores with farm animals; others drown in farm ponds and in manure storage facilities.

Through its hands-on interactive training program, the National Education Center for Agricultural Safety (NECAS) is creating higher levels of awareness among all audiences and are reducing the level of preventable illnesses, injuries and deaths in rural America.

This year's focus on children is especially important because farmers and ranchers are an integral part of the agricultural community. National Farm Safety and Health Week events bring the safety message to kids' communities through safety day camps and farm safety programs.

Implementing the following injury prevention strategies today can protect agriculture's greatest resource, our children.

Do not allow children to roam freely on the farm. Design a fenced "safe play" area. This area should be near the house and away from work activities.
Inspect the farm on a regular basis for hazards that can injure children. Correct obvious hazards immediately.
Children who are physically able to be involved in farm work should be assigned age-appropriate tasks and continually trained to perform them. They should also be constantly supervised.
Equip all barns, farm shops, chemical storage areas and livestock pens with latches that can be locked or secured so that children cannot enter.
Always turn equipment off, lower hydraulics and remove the key before leaving equipment unattended.
Do not expose children to hazards. Never carry them on tractors and equipment or invite them into the farm shop, livestock barns or grain bins.