It’s time to make farm life safer, healthier and happier

While the number of farm tragedies has fallen considerably since the 1950s, when you consider the number of those employed in agriculture is much reduced, farming’s fatal incidence rate (that’s deaths per 100,000 workers) has flat lined at around 10 for the past four decades. Worryingly, this is 20 times the all-industry average and accounts for 20 percent of all workplace fatalities, despite employing just one percent of the working population.

Shamefully, children are still being killed (three under-twos last year), though older workers are most likely to be killed or maimed, in the sadly usual ways (struck by vehicles or objects, livestock and falls).

Look out

There’s plenty to look out for this week on social media. Keep an eye on LinkedIn and X for activity from IOSH and also from Alan Plom, a member of the IOSH Rural Industries Group. Alan has worked for more than 50 years to help make UK farms safer, healthier and happier, 32 of them with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). So, he knows something about the subject and will be sharing some of his insight in a series of three blogs for Farm Safety Week, all to be posted on LinkedIn, starting Monday 22 July 2024.

We’ll also be sharing a video interview with Mike Whiting, Chair of our Rural Industries Group, on Wednesday 24 July 2024 on LinkedIn. And if you have access to the latest copy of Farmers Weekly magazine, be sure to look for its ‘Lead Letter’ for Farm Safety Week from Alan Plom.