This study investigated the agricultural work-related safety and health programming of county-level cooperative extension agents who work through land grant universities to provide a range of educational programs to agricultural producers. A questionnaire was designed and administered to all 89 Wisconsin agriculture and agribusiness extension county faculty. The questionnaire obtained valid responses from 98.9 percent of the agents. Ninety percent of all agents conducted some occupational safety and health promotion programming in the last year. These activities occupied an average of 4.8 days per agent per year. Most of the reported activities were group programs for the agricultural labor force that involved other extension agents and included the use of videotapes. The greatest barrier to more programming was lack of time on the part of both the agricultural work force and the agents. Most extension agents placed greater emphasis on training in how to work safely around hazards than on how to recognize and permanently correct hazards. For future programs agents requested more short format materials to use in programming, such as fact sheets, videotapes, and farm hazard inspection checklists. Agents are important training delivery resources for controlling farm-related injury and disease. Agents could be more effective with more time, better materials, and with more emphasis on hazard correction in workplace safety programs.
Safety education alone is unlikely to reduce injuries unless unsafe conditions are modified. Instructors need to emphasize teaching of skills in hazard recognition, identification, and control. Instructors felt they could be more effective with better materials and more time for injury and disease prevention.
In 1986, the authors conducted a study of selfpropelled agricultural machines for the National Institute of Handicapped Research. The primary goals of the study were to identify and evaluate the modifications made to agricultural machines to enable farmers with serious physical handicaps to operate them and to document the results for use by rehabilitation professionals. One type ofinformation frequently requested from Purdue University's Breaking New Ground Resource Center has dealt with access to agricultural machinery by farmers with restricted mobility caused by spinal cord injuries or amputations. Even in today's highly automated farm operation, it appears that the ability to run agricultural production equipment remains essential to its success. It has been concluded that the operation of this equipment is one of the most serious vocational barriers perceived by physically disabled agricultural workers. A uniform technique and a supporting documentation tool were developed and used in a study of 29 modified self-propelled agricultural machines. The documentation tool provided a useful means to help evaluate existing modifications and make decisions concerning the most appropriate modification for a client. The results were intended to increase the availability of the rehabilitation technology necessary to enable farmers and ranchers to continue operating essential equipment within the agricultural worksite. This paper specifically discusses the documentation technique and the criteria used in the study.Agri cultural production ha s the highe st di sabling injury rate of an y occupation in t he United States.Address corres pondence and reprint reque sts to T. L .
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