FARMERS have been urged to redouble their efforts to prevent workplace deaths, currently standing at 18 so far this year.
Minister for Labour Affairs Dara Calleary made the plea at the official opening of the National Farm Safety Conference – in a week marred by separate farm deaths in counties Westmeath and Cork.
Martin O’Halloran, chief executive of the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) called for a minute’s silence for all those who had died on Irish farms in recent years in accidents which could have been avoided.
With the rate of farm deaths this year accounting for over 50 per cent of all occupational deaths in the State, and currently standing at seven more than for the whole of last year, he called for a special effort to improve what was turning out to be a black year.
This year, the conference widened its scope to look at the general health of farmers and its relevance to accidents and deaths.
Prof Gerry Boyle, director of Teagasc, said research had shown a link between health and safety and human behaviour and management.
It also showed that victims of farm accidents worked excessively long hours and many were working on their own.
Aoife Osborne, a PhD fellow supported by Teagasc and the Health and Safety Authority said recent studies indicated farmers as an occupational group had inferior health status. US and Finnish studies found poor health was strongly associated with increased farm injury rates.
Dr Anne Collins, a specialist plastic surgery registrar, said power-shaft guards were missing in 80 per cent of the power-shaft injuries treated, and loose clothing and rushing at work were associated with 40 per cent of injuries.
The national study also showed survival rates after power shaft injuries declined as farmers grew older, with the average age of fatal power-shaft victims 46 years old compared to 28 years old for survivors.
Malcolm Downey, principal inspector, agriculture with the Northern Ireland health and safety executive, said following a campaign to cut child deaths on farms, there had been none there from 2004-2008, but there had been one last year.
He said a change in recent years in the North had been the number of deaths and injuries inflicted by cows and heifers, rather than bulls, on farmers and the fact that 23 older farmers had died on farms in the 2003-2008 period.
HSA figures released yesterday showed 65 per cent of farmers were meeting their legal requirements in having a safety statement or a code of practice for their farm, which represented a significant increase on previous years.
“Despite this increased knowledge there is a continuing failure to fully and adequately address the key known hazards on many farms, particularly in the areas of machinery safety and slurry handling,” said the HSA statement.