Farm Safety and Health Week Educational Resources

National Farm Safety and Health Week for 2022 has fallen on September 18-24, with every day being used to teach others about how to safely work on farms and around equipment.

This year, each day of the week is highlighted by webinars that focus on farm safety. Monday, September 19 focuses on 'Crashes Involving Agricultural Vehicles in the Southwest Region' and 'ATV/UTV Safety for Farm Women.' Tuesday, September 20 focuses on, 'Putting Time and Distance Between Someone at Risk of Suicide and Lethal Means: An Overview of the CALM Workshop' and 'Heat and Wildfire Smoke Exposure Among Agricultural Workers: Examining Exposure Risk and Potential Strategies to Protect Workers.' Wednesday, September 21 focuses on 'Protecting and Promoting the Health of Young Agricultural Workers: The Role of Employers and Supervisors' and 'Farm Youth Mental Health: What We Know and How to Help.' Thursday, September 22 will focus on 'Roundtable Discussion: Grain Bin Safety' and 'Confined Space: Grain Bin Entry.' And, finally, the focus on Friday, September 23 will be 'More than Milk: Strong Bones and Injury Prevention for Aging Women in Ag' and 'Working Together to Prevent Sexual Harassment in the Agricultural Workplace.’

Each day during National Farm Safety & Health Week, AgriSafe will host two free webinars related to the daily topic of focus. Participants only need to register one time to access all of the NFSHW webinars. Registration is still open for the remaining webinars.

The 2019 data for the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates that the agricultural sector is still the most dangerous in America with 573 fatalities, or an equivalent of 23.1 deaths per 100,000 workers. Fall harvest time can be one of the busiest and most dangerous seasons of the year for the agriculture industry. For this reason, the third week of September has been recognized as National Farm Safety and Health Week. This annual promotion initiated by the National Safety Council has been proclaimed as such by each sitting U.S. President since Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1944. National Farm Safety and Health Week is led by the National Education Center for Agricultural Safety (NECAS), the agricultural partner of the National Safety Council.

For years, the National Safety Council (NSC) helped raise awareness of safety issues in rural communities. In 1994, a pilot course was held at Northeast Iowa Community College, and the partnership was so well received Iowa Governor Terry Branstad signed legislation providing $1 million to construct a farm safety training center. In 1997, the National Education Center for Agricultural Safety (NECAS) opened its doors to the farming community with a facility on the NICC Peosta campus. NECAS is the only organization with a hands-on farm equipment safety training center. The facility also houses classrooms, a library and a resource center.

Like any business, agriculture can be financially set back by safety violations, injuries, illnesses and deaths. NECAS offers safety education and proactive programs to help prevent incidents that affect your agribusiness safety and welfare. Programs include: hazardous materials training; respiratory protection programs; CPR classes; tractor roll-over protection retrofit programs; tractor certification programs; combine safety; confined spaces; rescue procedures (tractor roll-over, grain entrapment, combine, auger extrication and manure pit rescues); youth programs; and training seminars tailored to specific needs.

Go to necasag.org to learn more.