D2o—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, May 5,1984
FORT COLLINS, Col. - Far
mers work to beat the clock, to
beat the weather, to beat the bank.
Yet, there’s at least one com
petitor they aren’t beating - ac
cidental job - related deaths.
Those deaths, coupled with
deaths suspected to be linked to
pesticides and other toxic
chemicals, are decreasing the
number of employees in a
profession already strapped for
workers, said health-safety expert
Roy Buchan.
Bufchan is with Colorado State
University’s Institute of Rural
Environmental Health.
“The decline of people in ag
production and the constant high
rate of accidental deaths on our
farms and ranches are going to
have a direct affect on one
another,” said Buchan.
Buchan and co-worker Del
Sandfort, both CSU industrial
hygienists, recently spent five
years designing a program to help
reduce agricultural deaths.
Program funding has ended, but
the two experts still give safety
workshops.
Daily, Buchan pointed out, five
American agricultural workers die
in accidental deaths, placing the
profession just behind mining on
the list of hazardous occupations.
In 1982, the last year that
statistics are available, 1,800
agricultural workers died. That is
about 52 deaths per 100,000 out of
the 3.4 million workers in
agricultural production.
In comparison, 600 miners out of
a workforce of 1.1 million died that
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Ag
accident dangers outlined
year, a rate of 55 deaths per 100,000
workers.
Agricultural deaths have helped
decrease the number of Americans
involved in agriculture production
from 5 percent to 3 percent in the
last two years, Buchan said.
Exposure to pesticides, grain
dust and toxic gases contribute to
the decreasing number of
agricultural workers, Buchan and
Sandfort suspect.
They and other experts believe
many lung, kidney and liver
diseases and many cancers might
be related to chemical hazards on
the farm and ranch. However, no
statistics are available to confirm
their suspicions.
“These people are constantly
exposed to toxic chemicals and the
hazardous by-products of their
labor,” Buchan said.
“The authorities pull some
product off the grocers’ shelves
because people might get 30 parts
per billion of ethylene dibromide.
But nobody asks what EDB levels
farmers are exposed to when they
are applying that chemical.”
The cause of many agricultural
deaths often is related, in an off
beat way, to economics - the
hairline margin of farmers’ and
ranchers’ operations.
“They are so busy they don’t
have time to take the precautions
that they should,” Sandfort said.
“The truth is they can’t afford not
to take the time.”
On top of that, many workers
consider accidental deaths merely
an occupational hazard. “They
really believe it,” Sandfort said.
In 1984
BRUNING
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“They know the potential danger,
but they don’t think it can ever
happen to them.”
Many accidental deaths could be
avoided if workers would turn off
machinery to make repairs or
adjustments, Buchan and Sandfort
said.
They cited these as the culprits
responsible for most accidental
deaths;
—tractor toll-overs, the most
common cause of agricultural
related accidental deaths;
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—a revolving tractor shaft that
powers equipment being pulled;
—machinery that feeds plants
into chopper blades. Often the
machines get clogged, and while
unclogging it, a farmer’s shirt gets
caught, pulling an arm into the
blades.
“If a farmer or rancher dies
prematurely, a fourth or
sometimes a third of the workforce
on the operation is gone. It’s just a
good investment to do away with
occupational hazards,” said
Buchan.
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(Continued from Page Dl9)
can become very “loose” and lose
a lot of flesh. Feeding excess
protein also puts added stress on
cows, and taxes their excretory
system. Protein is too costly to
overfeed, even if it is in the form of
home grown feeds. Even though it
may soon be in abundant supply,
due to Spring harvests, it should be
rationed out over most of the year
so as to avoid expensive protein
purchases at a later date.
On many dairy farms, the
changes made in the feeding
program in the Spring of the year
are drastic ones, and this is
especially true this year because of
the tight feed situation. These
changes should be made
gradually, with the help of trained
individuals, in an effort to keep the
ration balanced and to prevent
“throwing off” the herd.
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