C4-Uncaster Fanning, Saturday, November 8,1986
Seminar To Probe Accident
Prevention: Mechanical, Airborne
BY MARTHA SHELDON
New York Correspondent
SYRACUSE, N.Y. - For weeks
after a farmer loses his fingers to a
corn chopper, or is strangled by his
shirt entangled in a power take-off,
he and his accident are the topic of
conversation amongst farmers for
miles around. Wives ask their
husbands what they should do if
they ever find them in similar
situations. Farmers ask each other
how it happened and why.
Nobody talks about farmer
Smith’s flu-like symptoms that
sent him to bed for several days
after he unloaded his silo last fall.
Nobody perhaps, but Drs. John
May and David Pratt, who iden
tified Silo Unloader’s Syndrome as
the fever, chills, muscle aches and
weakness which may appear 4 to 8
hours after exposure to large
amounts of dust encountered in
unloading a non-oxygen limited
silo.
Farming is now the most
dangerous occupation in the
country. But it doesn’t have to be
that way say these two physicians,
who were alarmed by the
discovery that 120 of 475 farm
workers in Otsego County were
injured or died in a one-year
period.
The two pulmonary specialists
have done extensive research into
the respiratory problems of farm-
Streambank Protection
Guidelines Offered
LEESPORT - “Large scale
efforts to control soil erosion have
been underway in the United
States since the dust bowl days of
the 1930’s when wind erosion
turned much of the fertile farming
areas of the great plains into a
virtual wasteland,” says John Fior
of the USDA Soil Conservation
Service. Initial soil conservation
efforts were directed toward
saving topsoil in agricultural
areas. However, as the value and
use of land near streams in
creased, the need for effective
streambank protection techniques
quickly became apparent. Many
miles of streambanks along major
waterways have been protected as
part of navigation and flood control
projects.
However, many streams still
need bank protection. “A 1969
study by the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers showed that of the 7
million miles of streambanks in
the United States, 550,000 miles
were experiencing some degree of
erosion, where 148,000 miles or 2
percent were being severely
eroded,” says Fior. The annual
economic losses occurring as a
result of the severe erosion alone
approached 90 million dollars in
1969.
“In recognition of the serious
economic losses occurring
throughout the United States due to
streambank erosion, Congress
authorized the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers to conduct a 7-year
study to examine the causes of
streambank erosion and evaluate
the effectiveness of existing and
experimental methods of
streambank protection,” says
Fior. The final report was sub
mitted to Congress in April 1982.
Congress requested the Corps to
develop a streambank protection
pamphlet covering current
knowledge of streambank
protection methods. This material
was to be made available to land
owners, local government, and
professionals in the field.
“As a result, “Streambank
Protection Guidelines” was
published in October 1983 and is
available to the general public,”
says Fior. Copies of- this
ers, focusing on the very serious
Farmers’ Lung Disease, and
identifying the two temporarily
debilitating conditions of Silo
Unloader’s Syndrome and Silo
Filler’s Disease.
They are pooling their
knowledge, which includes the
results of a study of more than 250
Otsego County farms, and
capitalizing on an $B,OOO grant
from Eastern Milk Producers
Cooperative Association, a $2,000
grant from the New York State
Grange, and another grant from
the New York State Department of
Labor’s Occupational Safety and
Training Program, to conduct
workshops for farmers.
Dubbed FARMSAFE, the
seminars are targeted at bringing
home the dangers and risks of
farming to the people who need the
information the most farmers
themselves.
The seminars will go beyond
describing the dangers of farming,
and reveal ways farmers can
prevent accidents what personal
safety equipment to wear, how to
avoid machinery injuries, what
practices will help prevent ex
posure to toxic spores, molds,
fungi and chemicals.
May and Pratt co-direct the
Bassett Farm Safety and Health
Project at the Columbia-
University affiliated Mary
Imogene Bassett Hospital in
publication may be obtained from
the U.S. Army Engineer Water
ways Experiment Station, At
tention: Public Affairs Office, P.O.
Box 631, Vicksburg, Mississippi
39180.
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Cooperstown, N.Y. They may be
the only doctors in the country
focusing on farm safety and
health, and have applied for a
three-year, $1.2 million grant from
the Centers for Disease Control,
aimed at detailing all farm ac
cidents in New York state.
They have learned that Silo
Unloader’s Syndrome is caused by
exposure to high levels of fungal
spores and mold in the layer of
rotted forage at the top of silos, and
have noted that even if the symp
toms necessitate a brief
hospitalization, the damage is not
permanent. There are no
measurable changes in lung
capacity or lung scarring as a
result.
Silo Filler’s Disease, however,
can be fatal. It results from the
humidification in the lungs of the
gas N0 2 , generated by corn during
the first few days following en
silage.
Farmers’ lung disease is an
allergic reaction which in some
ways behaves like poison ivy.
Some people can have a long ex
posure without any effect, others
become its victim with only minor
contact. Inhaled spores and
bacteria that grow in en
vironments above 125 degrees,
such as in wet hay and silage,
cause the disease.
FARMSAFE will feature
presentations by national experts
m many areas of farm safety,
health and accident prevention.
The sessions will be video taped
and the doctors plan to make the
tapes available to farmers in New
York and other states who are
unable to attend the seminars,
through a variety of organizations,
including Cooperative Extensions.
The physicians recognize the
stress farmers are under as a
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David Pr> seated, and Dr. John May will present a
series of seminars discussing the problems of disease and
injury for farmers.
result of a poor farm economy, but
point out that farm accidents,
injuries and disease are always
economically and physically
debilitating to farmers.
The first FARMSAFE seminars
are planned for Nov. 13 in
Watertown and Nov. 20 in New
Hartford. Two more seminars will
be held in March in Jamestown
and Batavia.
Farming has improved its safety
record in recent years, but the
improvement in farm safety has
not kept pace with the im-
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provement in other industries,
There are now 50 injuries a year
for every 1,000 farmers, and 58
deaths for every 100,000 farmers.
Pratt and May do not believe
federal or state regulation is the
way to improve the farm safety
record.
Regulation, they say, will
backfire. Education is the way to
go educate farmers on the
economic disadvantages of injury
and teach them how to avoid the
dangers and pitfalls of their in
dustry.
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