Farmscape for December 20, 2012

An assistant professor with the Canadian Centre for Health and Safety in Agriculture reports modifications to the work environment or to safety equipment are a much more effective means of improving safety on the farm than attempting to modify worker behavior.
The Canadian Centre for Health and Safety in Agriculture at the University of Saskatchewan focuses on agricultural safety, rural health and delivery of training programs.
Dr. Catherine Trask, an assistant professor with the Canadian Centre for Health and Safety in Agriculture, says there has been a lot of interest not just from a loss prevention perspective but also from the perspective of keeping workers healthier and happier and making the work place a better place to be.

Clip-Dr. Catherine Trask-University of Saskatchewan:
The types of controls that we most like to implement are those that modify the environment or the tools that are used so that we're not requiring workers themselves to remember at any particular moment that there's one safe way to lift something for example.
Mostly we like to try to make those changes in the environment as much as we can.
Making those changes requires some investment on the part of the employer, on the part of the producer and so it's not always clear what that change or modification should be to the equipment or to the environment.
If you're going to make a big investment you want to really make sure that you're making the right change.
Because this research is still at its beginning stages there's a lot that we need to figure out and a lot more research that needs to be done on identifying those best practices for modifying the environment and the tools that are used.

Dr. Trask says producers have been very positive about the idea of implementing change and making work places healthier and safer.
For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

       *Farmscape is a presentation of Sask Pork and Manitoba Pork Council