The social sustainability of farmers and preventing injury and ill health were topics at Teagasc’s recent Signpost webinar. The alarming factor underpinning the presentation being that agriculture has the highest rate of work-related fatal injuries in Ireland. With statistics showing that farmers are seven times more likely to be killed at work compared with any other sector.
While construction workers account for six deaths in every 100,000 workers, data from the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) indicates that there are 18 deaths for every 100,000 workers in the agricultural industry. This figure represents just 1.5 for every 100,000 workers nationally.
In light of the data, Francis Bligh, from Teagasc’s health and safety department, stated that that Ireland is “way out of sync”” with other industries.
Nationally, there are 140,000 farms and 400,000 people working on these farms. “Unlike other countries, 92% of farmers are sole operators or self-employed on their own farm,” Bligh said.
He also spoke about farmers being “psychologically unbounded” – meaning that they are masters of what they do each day on the farm, and “they don’t have to follow the rules that would apply if they were working on a construction site. They decide every day what they do and how they do it,” he said.
Bligh emphasized the importance of having safety at the forefront of their minds.
Dr Breda Smyth et al found that the standard mortality ratio among farmers is five times higher than ‘white collar’ workers, and that they are three times more likely to die from cancer.
Teagasc’s webinar was titled, Understanding and Supporting Social Sustainability of Farmers and Preventing Injury and Ill Health. It highlighted the fact that farmers should regularly get health checks.