Posted by Administrator on July 21 2009 11:54
Liz Wagstrom, DVM, MS, DACVPM
Introduction
Agriculture, as an industry, has a high rate of occupational injury and illness. Occupational safety is regulated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). All farms that employee ten or more employees at any time during the year may be subject to routine OSHA inspection. Additionally, in the case of an accident or fatality all producers would be expected to be in compliance with OSHA regulation. Outside of regulatory oversight, in many states employers are also expected to provide worker’s compensation insurance to provide for employees injured while at work. Finally, protecting the health and safety of workers may help to increase employee satisfaction and decrease employee turnover.
Below, we describe the development of comprehensive educational materials with the objective of addressing the specific occupational safety concerns of pork production.
Materials and Methods
A consultant familiar with OSHA regulation was retained to develop the content for the worker safety program. In addition, a focus group comprised of persons responsible for occupational safety in production systems of varying sizes was assembled. The focus group was tasked with critique of currently available materials, input into desired educational materials and delivery methods. Draft materials were reviewed by occupational safety professionals. Following development of the content, educational specialists developed delivery methods for the content.
Results
Twenty topic areas were identified as essential for protecting occupational safety and achieving compliance with OSHA regulation. Materials were developed to address those topics for each of three audiences: the employer, the trainer/manager, and the employee/worker. The employer materials provide a template for the producer to build a safety policy manual and develop a safety program. The trainer materials provide lesson plans, PowerPoint presentations and video clips for use during employee training sessions. Finally, there is an employee computer based training module that allows a worker to receive the education via an interactive computer training module.
The educational program, Pork Production Safety System™, was launched in the fall of 2005. Industry acceptance of the program has been enthusiastic. Spanish language materials were developed and released in June of 2006 to address the needs of the large number of Spanish speaking employees in U.S. pork production. In addition, at least one large worker’s compensation insurance carrier is reviewing the materials to determine if they will r
ecommend that their pork producer clients implement the program. An objective study to determine if changes can be measured in injury or restricted activity rates, and employee attitude and behaviour after implementation of the program on farm is underway.
Discussion
Occupational safety is an important component of pork production. Promotion of employee safety in a production system helps to increase employee satisfaction and may help decrease employee turnover. Regulatory authorities in the United States are increasingly interested in assuring the safety of agricultural employees. The Pork Production Safety System materials provide a comprehensive educational package that allows producers to develop an occupational safety plan, train and document training of employees, and comply with occupational safety regulations.