Archives

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Protecting and Promoting the Health of Young Agricultural Workers: The Role of Employers and Supervisors

There are many benefits for hiring youth in agriculture, including the development of job skills, increased self-esteem, responsibility, and earned income. However, adolescents and young adults working in agriculture (under 25 years old) are at increased risk for occupational injuries. In addition to traditional workplace hazards, developmental differences (both physical and cognitive), inexperience, fatigue, and distracted behaviors increase the risk of injury. Employers and supervisors play an active role in protecting these workers. Communicating effectively with young workers about health and safety hazards that impact injury risk is key to protecting this population. This webinar will describe specific skills and practices that can be implemented in the workplace, on family farms, and in agricultural classrooms.

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Safe and Healthy Recovery After a Farm Flood

Disaster recovery can be as dangerous as the disaster itself, especially if no disaster preparedness plan was implemented. This is especially true on farms and ranches where inherent farm hazards such as machinery and equipment, livestock, and agriculture chemicals are displaced and co-mingle, putting all emergency response personnel, farm workers and family members in danger. Floods can heighten the risk of health threats such as mold, tetanus bacteria, contaminated well water, heat illness and high stress. This presentation will highlight basic precautions to prevent possible diseases and injuries during and after flooding. 

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Rural Road Safety: A Shared Responsibility

Rural roads play an important role in moving people and goods in the U.S., but all too often, crashes occur, and fatalities happen. These fatalities are not just statistics, but are our loved ones and community members, so how do we proactively work to reach zero? In this webinar, we will examine the concept that rural road safety is a shared responsibility, discuss safety culture, and delve into some strategies that can be used to improve safety for all rural road users. You will leave this webinar with actions you as an individual can take to make a difference.

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Roundtable Discussion: Grain Bin Safety

Grain Bin Safety week started in 2014 as an advocacy program to educate farmers and agricultural workers on safe practices in working in and around grain storage facilities. The program works on both sides of the issue by promoting a zero-entry mentality and then working with agribusiness to provide Grain Rescue tubes and training to Fire departments across the country. Since 2014 we have delivered 207 Grain rescue tubes in 31 States and this year will be adding 58 Rescue tubes. Learn about the program and how you could become involved.

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Respiratory Protection Program Adapted to Grain Handling Operations

The OSHA respiratory standard requires a written respiratory protection program for situations in which permissible exposure levels (PELs) of airborne contaminants could be exceeded or when the employer requires use of respirators by workers. This training will assist agriculture-based employers who require respirator use to comply with the OSHA respiratory protection program standard. Training includes written worksite specific procedures, program evaluation, selection of an appropriate respirator approved by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), training, fit testing, inspection, cleaning, maintenance, and storage, medical evaluation, work area surveillance and air quality standards.

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Respiratory Protection Issues in Agriculture – What to Wear & Does It Fit?

The business of agriculture presents a myriad of hazards, including exposures to dusts, molds, pesticides and other chemicals, gases, as well as welding fumes and particles. Deciding what protection to use to prevent acute and chronic respiratory diseases is confusing. In addition, just finding the right protective gear can be a challenge. This webinar will address those issues and provide information on the importance of fit testing and fit (seal) checks.

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Pediatric Farm-Related Injuries: Safeguarding Children Who Visit or Live on Farms

Injuries are the most common cause of death for children and adolescents, and farms and ranches present many unique hazards to youth. During this presentation, we will discuss many of these including augers, grain bins, gravity boxes, tractors, power take-offs (PTOs), manure pits, chemical exposures, animals, and gasoline-powered pressure sprayers. One of the most common causes of serious injuries and deaths to youth on farms and ranches are the use of off-road vehicles (ORVs) like all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), utility task vehicles (UTVs), and recreational off-highway vehicles (ROVs). The safety concerns and prevention strategies related to ORVs will be a featured segment of the presentation. A general overview of how the growth and development of youth affect the risk of injury, and the role healthcare providers can assume to impact injury prevention will be discussed.

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Tackling Tough Clinical Conversations

Many healthcare providers report that addressing behavioral health and substance use issues are of the most challenging areas of their practice.  Providers are unsure how to address these issues and yet they are in a prime position to reduce the negative outcomes related behavioral health problems.  This is especially true in rural areas where agricultural workers are found to have higher rates of suicide, depression, and substance use.  This webinar will focus on how healthcare providers can start the conversations necessary to identify and treat behavioral health problems. 

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Stress and Dairy Farming: Challenging Times in the Dairy Industry Pave the Way for Mental Health Struggles

The dairy industry has been struggling with low milk prices, infrastructure problems, trade issues, and isolation for several years. With this comes intense farm stress, despair, and desperation for many. Understanding how the system works – or doesn’t – is important because dairy producers work 24/7/365 to provide our families a safe and nutritious food.

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Stepping Boldly into Tough Conversations

Difficult conversations are something that people rarely look forward to. The reality is ignoring a situation and hoping that it will resolve itself, rarely works. Join us to learn how to confidently step into a tough conversation and promote open communication.

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Safety Sensitivity of Opioid Use in High Hazardous Industries Such as Agriculture

The American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine released recommendations for opioid prescribing based on safety-sensitive occupations. Safety-sensitive work is typically classified as operating motor vehicles, modes of transportation, other heavy machinery, or tasks requiring high levels of cognitive function or judgment. Farm duties frequently demand the use of heavy machinery, and concurrent use of narcotics alongside safety-sensitive work can be dangerous. This training educates healthcare providers on how to assess occupational agricultural risks and corresponding patient guidance for those who are taking opioid medications.

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Safety in the Field: Addressing Workplace Sexual Harassment for Farm Workers

Thirty-six percent of the 3.4 million producers counted in the census are women. Education will focus on all women including farmworker women and their employers on reporting violent incidents to authorities, making employees aware of their legal rights, safe work practices, medical referrals, treatment, and options including counseling if needed.

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Safeguarding Children and Youth who Live, Work and Play on Farms and Ranches

Farms and ranches are wonderful places for children and youth to live, work and play. However, agriculture is one of our most hazardous occupations, and the only worksite where children of any age can legally be present. The purpose of this presentation is to increase knowledge and awareness of agricultural child injuries, and extend the reach and dissemination of childhood agricultural injury prevention (CAIP) strategies and resources.

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Teach Your Way: Open Source Ag Health and Safety Curriculum

Learn how to access AgriSafe’s free online trainings for use in the classroom. Educators can be certified to train on six AgriSafe modules (targeted for ages 16-23). Generous sponsorship allows AgriSafe to provide free course instruction and training materials. Under our open share platform, once certified, you may use the training materials in your classroom setting. Our end goal is to build the capacity of local agricultural educators, rural health professionals and rural leaders to train young workers.

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Talking to Farmers About Pain

The occupational hazards that farmers face put them at greater risk for acute and chronic pain as a result of ergonomic repetition, accident, or surgical procedure. Addressing specific occupational sources of pain and what activities the pain inhibits are crucial to improving treatment. This module will focus on how to transform the conversation between provider and patient to improve health outcomes and patient satisfaction.

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Sleepless in America

The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention now identifies sleep deficiency as a public health problem.  Sleep affects every moment of our daily lives, from how we think and remember to how our bodies thrive or deteriorate. It determines how we deal with stress, make choices related to safety, and function as human beings. While most health education tends to focus on nutrition and activity, sleep is arguably the single most important factor in maintaining a healthy lifestyle, and lack of it causes a significantly reduced quality of life.  This presenter proposes that we prioritize sleep and improve daily sleep hygiene to enhance every facet of our well-being.

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Using Naloxone to Reverse Opioid Overdose in the Agricultural Workplace: Information for Employers and Workers

In 2018, the U.S. Surgeon General called for increased awareness and availability of naloxone, the opioid antagonist, to reverse the effects of opioid overdose. Despite the rise in the dispensing of naloxone, there is a significant gap in our response across all sectors of society. In the rural parts of our country, where emergency response times can be dangerously long, developing a workplace naloxone availability and use program could ultimately save lives. This webinar will share information from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) to help employers and workers understand the risk of opioid overdose and the role of naloxone. 

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Understanding the Tractor Factor

Agricultural tractors have traditionally been a leading cause of fatal and nonfatal injuries on and around farms and ranches. this webinar will cover the basic hazards associated with agricultural tractors with their use both on and off the roadway and how to prevent these injuries.

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Tools to Help Manage Financial Risk for Livestock Producers

Changing climate, market conditions, and many other factors impact the work and health of livestock producers, ranchers, and farmers. When a natural disaster is added on top of other stressors, support from a variety of sources is needed. This webinar will focus on the USDA Disaster Assistance Programs available to support producers who are raising livestock.

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Tools for Healthcare Professionals Working in Agricultural Communities (February 19, 2021)

In this webinar, attendees will learn about tools they can make use to enhance healthcare services for their farming and ranching patients. Alex Cavanaugh from the Rural Health Information Hub (RHIhub) will provide a general overview of services including: Rural Response Issue Guides for COVID-19, Farmer Mental Health and Suicide Prevention resources, and the Agricultural Health and Safety Topic Guide. Sarah Dauterive of AgriSafe Network will introduce MedlinePlus and its uses for healthcare professionals.

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Tools & Training to Aid in Selection of PPE in Agriculture (July 29, 2021)

Workers in the agricultural industry experience multiple hazardous respiratory exposures. It is important to understand these risks and to know the appropriate protective equipment to purchase and use. The female workforce often experiences a challenge finding the right protection with a proper fit. This 30-minute program will address both the risks and the right protective gear.

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To Care is to Honor: Understanding the Unique Healthcare Needs of Veteran Farmers

Rural veterans are a unique population with a health profile distinguished by a complex multitude of experiences. Come learn more about veteran farmers and how military service culture, gender, deployment experiences, and generational differences impact their total health and wellness. Explore how to better respond to the health care needs of veteran farmers by joining in to this free webinar.

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The Impact of Climate-Related Hazards on Mental Health

Extreme weather and climate events can lead to negative human health outcomes. Although the initial outcomes from these natural hazards are typically obvious, the long lasting impacts can be more difficult to identify because of the diversity of potential health burdens during the recovery phase. Mental health outcomes are one of the more complex relationships with natural hazards. The goal of this presentation is to build the link between human health and extreme weather and climate events. The discussion will be focused on rural populations.