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As the owner of LiveLine Demo, Inc., an electrical safety education business, and also a farmer, I often wear two hats. There's the orange hard hat that I wear when I'm doing my electrical safety programs and then there's my farm hat. I farm 550 acres in Vermilion County, Ill., and Warren County, Ind. Having spent 17 years at a power company, I sat through numerous safety meetings. Now I'm the guy giving the safety demonstrations. Farmers are not accustomed to having regular safety meetings, and some might think OSHA is a bad four-letter word. OSHA was formed to make the work place a safer environment. But how safe are we on the farm? It is a well-known fact that farmers are more likely to have an injury or fatal accident than our counterparts at a factory. We often use a lot of shortcuts around the farm and the shop that would not be acceptable in the work place. A few years ago, I was tearing down an old barn, and while dragging some lumber, I stumbled. As I stepped to the side to catch myself, my foot landed on a board with a nail pointing up. The nail went through my shoe and into my big toe. I should have taken the nails out of the boards as I removed them from the barn, rather than just laying them on the ground. I also should have been wearing proper footwear, rather than tennis shoes. After a couple of trips to the emergency room to have something removed from my eye, you would think that I would always wear my safety glasses. I am pretty good about doing it now, but I still find myself starting to drill or grind before I grab a pair of safety glasses. In my business I meet a lot of farmers who tell me about their accidents. Often their injuries are evident - they may have severe burns or limbs that are missing. I have a neighbor that had his leg cut off by a feed auger because it didn't have a cover on it. Another farmer I know and his boss were moving a grain auger by hand and got it into the 7,200 volt line crossing the barn lot. His boss was killed and he lost both his arms. So how can farmers be safer around the farm? First, we need to use some good old common sense. Secondly, we need to implement some basic safety procedures around the farm and not take shortcuts. • Wear shoes, gloves and other clothing suitable for the work being performed. • Wear appropriate gloves or other hand protection when exposed to cuts, lacerations, abrasions, punctures, chemical absorption or burns, thermal burns or temperature extremes. • Wear eye or face protection when exposed to flying particles, molten metal, liquid chemicals, acid or caustic liquids, chemical gases or vapors, or potentially injurious light. (Have a face shield by your grinder and use it.) • Wear suitable hearing protectors when exposed to loud or intense noise. • Wear a respirator when applying spray paint, welding galvanized metal, mixing or spraying pesticides, and when exposed to similar hazardous conditions. • Guards must remain in place when operating belts, gears, shafts, pulleys, fly wheels, chains and other moving parts. A couple of electrical safety tips I use during my demo are to use ground fault receptacles (GF-CIs) or ground fault drop cords. OSHA requires that GFCIs be used on any construction site or wet location. I have them in and around my home and shop and use the ground fault drop cord anytime I'm using a power tool. Remember 120 volts is the number one reason for electrocutions in the United States. If you are using elevated equipment, the OSHA minimum distance to an energized power line is 10 feet. This ruling also states that a vehicle in transit must be 4 feet away from the line. Keep this in mind while using farm equipment this fall. Look up for those overhead wires so you won't be another statistic. Have a safe and profitable fall!
14 ILLINOIS COUNTRY LIVING www.icl.coop |
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