With the focus and attention on personal protective equipment (PPE) in the world today, did you know farming is an industry that also utilizes and benefits from protections gained using PPE?
The healthy adoption of PPE workplace safety standards is an important farm worker strategy to keep farmers and their families safer in Canada’s 4th most hazardous industry. Choosing to adopt modern safety standards when farm work practices have been passed along for generations is a conscious but sometimes disruptive choice.
Farming specific applications of PPE are plentiful and increasingly being adopted. The positive impact of practices such as simply wearing hearing protection when working around loud equipment can be understood in contrast to the common hearing loss suffered by older generation farmers who didn‘t know the benefits of wearing hearing protection.
Other common uses of PPE by farmers:
High visibility vests - worn by all farm family members/workers whenever they are outside working in the yard or farm, especially children. Increased visibility around large equipment, particularly at low light times of day or tiresome long days can be especially valuable.
Appropriate clothing, footwear and head protection for the job - no flip-flops when feeding the horses, long sleeves and gloves when working with barbed wire and no loose-fitting clothing that may become entangled in machinery. This also includes wearing helmets and safety gear on ATV’s.
Dust masks or respirators and eye protection - sweeping out grain bins and stalls, working with chemicals; These protections with the addition of rubber gloves, aprons, goggles or full face shields are required to protect the wearer when working with hazardous chemicals, protecting them from things like dust from treated seed, splashing when mixing chemicals for spraying, or dangerous gasses.
What PPE are you implementing to keep yourself and your family safe? What practices can you adapt to include more PPE for safer outcomes in your daily life?
For more information on how you can keep you and your family safe while working on the farm or rural setting please visit our Safety Website: www.ruralandfarmsafety.ca