SEBA Class IX Agriculture Unit 5: Occupational Health, Hygiene and First Aid Practices

INTRODUCTION

Occupational health focuses on controlling health hazards in agricultural or laboratory settings, involving the recognition and control of environmental factors that can cause health issues. Knowledge of immediate medical aid for accidents and safety measures to prevent hazards is important for students.

SESSION 1: PREVENT HAZARDOUS CONDITIONS AT WORKPLACE

Hazard

A hazard is a condition with the potential to cause injury or environmental damage, leading to adverse health effects and physical damage in certain workplace situations. 

Types of hazards

Natural hazards

These hazards occur because of natural incidents, which may include meteorological (e.g., heavy rains and floods), geological (e.g., landslides and earthquakes), and biological (e.g., gas leaks) factors. Examples of natural hazards are cyclone, earthquake, tsunami and volcanic eruption. Landslide, drought, flood and fire are socio-natural or hybrid hazards as their causes may be both natural and manmade. The natural hazards threatening India include earthquakes (usually, in the Himalayan region), floods, including tsunamis (usually, in river deltas and coastal areas), and landslides (usually, in hilly areas during heavy rains).

Mechanical hazards

They are related to poorly designed and ill-maintained agricultural machinery.

Hazards related to pesticides and chemicals

Pesticides are solutions meant for destroying, mitigating and controlling pests. Accidental death from pesticides is a rarity but skin infections and disorders, and health issues may occur, if timely precautions are not taken (Fig. 5.2). Careless handling or use of pesticides can cause harmful effects to the environment and human beings. Precautions must be taken during the selection of pesticides, their transportation, loading, mixing, application, storage and container disposal (Fig. 5.3 and 5.4).

Pesticides may enter our food in the following ways:

• extensive use in growing crops
• frequent and unwanted application by a grower in a crop
• application of poor quality pesticides by the grower
• a pesticide dealer cheats farmers by giving wrong advice and supplying poor quality of pesticides
• continuance of banned pesticides
• liquid waste from pesticide manufacturing units

Fig. 5.1: Types of hazards

Fig. 5.2: Safety measures being adopted while preparing a pesticide solution

Fig. 5.3: Signage indicating pesticide spraying in progress

• unsafe disposal of leftover pesticides and cleaning of plant protection equipment
• pesticide production and marketing

Precautions

Toxicity labels marked on the pesticide packing, as shown in Fig. 5.5, must be taken into account while using pesticides.

• Chemicals should not be sprayed in foggy and windy weather.
• A person spraying chemicals should not have an open injury on his/her body.

Accidents

Accidents are unfortunate incidents attributable to various factors that a person faces during work, causing physical injury, death and acute poisoning when exposed to a toxic product even for a short duration.

Occupational hazards at agricultural farm

Farmers and workers, while working in an agricultural farm, can suffer from a number of occupational hazards. These include hazards related to farm machinery, biological and chemical hazards, and stress. The hazards may cause injuries, health disorders or diseases. Some of the reasons for injuries and accidents at agricultural farms are as follows:

• being hit by a moving vehicle
• falling from height
• contact with large animals
• contact with a heavy falling object or material
• contact with a farm machinery
• drowning
• musculo-skeletal injury (aches, sprains or strains)
• effects of toxic chemicals through inhalation or exposed body parts

Hazards related to animals

Injuries inflicted by animals include bites, kicks, crushing and transmission of certain infectious diseases. If a farmer or a person working in a field gets injured by a farm animal, immediate first aid must be administered to him/her and required medical procedures be followed. Injuries from cattle relate to a number of factors, including lack of trained workers, unsafe work practices, weight of an animal, stress and sometimes the behaviour of the animal.

• Hazards by animals may vary as per their age, breed, sex, weight, temperament, horn status and training imparted to them.
• It is also in look, heifers can be dangerous at the time of weaning.
• Cattle, kept isolated, are likely to be more aggressive when approached.
• Cattle with sharp and pointed horns are dangerous, therefore, dehorning is recommended.

Ergonomic hazards

These are caused by inappropriate and cumbersome postures, leading to damage or pain in muscles and tendons. These are mainly caused while working on or with poorly designed tools.

Hazards related to electricity

An electric hazard arises due to faulty switches and machines, poor quality cords, overhead power lines, etc. Faulty electrical installations and use of cheap quality equipment can even cause fires (Fig. 5.6). When an equipment or a machinery gets close to a high tension line, it can lead to electric shocks, causing injury to the driver or the person handling it.

In some severe cases, it can even lead to electrocution, causing permanent disability or death of a person.

Fig. 5.6: Electricity hazard sign

Hazards related to heights

Hazards related to heights include falls from ladders, rooftops, farm machinery, tractors and windmills. These are major causes of injury. The following precautions must be taken to prevent hazards due to heights (Fig. 5.7):

• Always wear safety and protective devices, such as headgear, while working on rooftops.
• Climbing ladders should be strong, unbreakable and non-slippery.
• An attendant must always hold the ladder.
• A worker must hook an elastic rope around his waist that has one end locked while working at heights.

Hazards related to water

Water-related hazards like floods and droughts can significantly impact farmers' socio-economic status. Bodies of water such as lakes, ponds, wells, rivers, channels, and tanks are particularly hazardous, especially for young children. Children playing on farmland should be warned to stay away from water bodies.

Hazards related to extreme weather

Extreme weather on farms can lead to hazards like sunburn, heatstroke, dehydration, and cold exposure.

Risk

Risk is defined as the potential for loss from unexpected situations and is a measure of the danger associated with an activity. Understanding the potential harm from machinery and assessing risks helps in planning for hazard mitigation [1]. For instance, a main hazard of power-driven machines is entanglement. The risk is higher without guards or proper staff training [1]. Maintaining and properly handling the machine reduces this risk [1]. Risk assessment involves identifying potential causes of harm to workers and others on-site [1]. While there are no strict rules for risk assessment, relevant legislation, regulations, technical norms, and risk prevention principles should be considered [1]. These, along with identifying dangers in work, identifying exposed individuals, and assessing existing safety measures, can help prevent farm accidents [1].

• decision on new measures that should be introduced to eliminate or reduce risks.

Disaster

Besides hazards, the farming community also has to face various types of natural and manmade disasters. A disaster can be termed as as "a sudden misfortune that causes a great damage to life". In other words, it can be explained as "an unexpected event whose consequences are seriously destructive".

A disaster can be a combination of a hazard, vulnerability and insufficient capacity of individuals or a community to minimise the potential probability of a risk. It can either be natural, i.e., floods, cyclones, droughts, earthquakes, etc., or manmade, such as riots, fires, conflicts, epidemics, industrial accidents, environmental fallouts, etc.

What have you learned?

Now, I am able to:

• differentiate between risk and hazard.
• understand the common hazards that can occur in an agricultural farm..

Practical Exercises

ti it re are a art t es a ars at
a r a e art

Material required: Chart paper, pencil, scale and sketch pens
Procedure

• Take a chart paper and draw a flow chart depicting the different types of hazards at a workplace.
• Discuss it in the class with other students.

Check Your Progress

i i t e a s

1. Substances intended for preventing and mitigating pests are called ________________.
2. Hazards related to agricultural machinery are called ________________.
3. Keep electrical equipment away from ________________.
4. Risk is defined as the danger of loss from ________________ circumstances.