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Agriculture and Agricultural Science Procedia 7 (2015) 209 – 214

Farm Machinery and Processes Management in Sustainable Agriculture, 7th International

Scientific Symposium
Agriculture: accident-prone working environment
Halina Pawlak*a Bożena Nowakowicz-Dębekb
a
Centre for Ergonomics, University of Life Sciences in Lublin, 28 Głęboka Street, 20-612 Lublin, Poland
b
Office of Occupational and Environmental Hazards, University of Life Sciences in Lublin, 13 Akademicka Street, 20-950 Lublin, Poland

Abstract

The article presents the analysis of agriculture as working environmentally prone to accidents. A questionnaire has been used for
the evaluation which included 15 questions for establishing causes of accidents at work in agriculture. Studies have shown that
haste, mess and failure to comply with basic safety rules is the most common cause of accidents. It is therefore necessary to raise
farmers' awareness about the risks of accident.

©© 2015
2015 Published by Elsevier
The Authors. B.V.
Published by This is anB.V.
Elsevier open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the Centre wallon de Recherches agronomiques (CRA-W).
Peer-review under responsibility of the Centre wallon de Recherches agronomiques (CRA-W)
Keywords: accidents; agriculture; prevention.

1. Introduction

Working on a private farm is considerably different to working on an industrial farm. It can be described as
seasonal and it entails frequent changes of performed activities as well as conditions in which they are performed. It
takes more than 12 hours a day for people working in the countryside to do their tasks whatever the season and
weather conditions (Pawlak and Hołaj, 2012; Cież, 2010). Their workplace is not only the house but also the yard,
farm buildings, the field and sometimes ponds. Farmers changing their workplace, the level of its mechanization,
working tools and daily working time change, which along with the exposure to many hazardous mechanical factors
including thermal, dust, biological and chemical ones, leads to fatigue and increases the risk of an accident (KRUS,
CIOP, 2015; Juliszewski, 2007; Nowakowicz-Dębek et al., 2011; Nowakowicz-Dębek et al., 2014; Pawlak et al.,

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +0048 8153197446; fax: +0048 815333549.

E-mail address: halina.pawlak@up.lublin.pl

2210-7843 © 2015 Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the Centre wallon de Recherches agronomiques (CRA-W)
doi:10.1016/j.aaspro.2015.12.019
210 Halina Pawlak and Bożena Nowakowicz-Dębek / Agriculture and Agricultural Science Procedia 7 (2015) 209 – 214

2013). The act of social insurance for farmers defines an occupational accident as an unexpected occurrence caused
by an external factor which happened whilst conducting an activity on a farm, on the way from the house to the farm
and on the way back, as well as during usual activities conducted away from the farm but connected with the farm
(Dz.U., 2009; Dz.U., 2015). In the year 2014 21,939 accidents were recorded in agriculture in Poland. One-off
compensations were paid, for damage to health or death accruing from occupational accidents, to 15,649 cases. The
number of accidents is smaller compared to 2013 (6.1% decline), however, the overall number is still high (fig.1).
KRUS statistics (2015) show a downturn as accidents with children are not recorded.

35 000 1 800
1 570 1 544 1 523 1 501

The number of insured in thousands

28 000 1 478
26 943 26 305
25 772 24 008
23 374
1 200
21 000

14 000
600
Number of events

7 000

0 0
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

number of accidents

the number of insured in thousands

Fig.1. Number of farming accidents between 2005 and 2014 (KRUS, 2015)

According to statistics, most fatal accidents happened due to ‘being run over, being struck, being caught by a
moving vehicle’ and ‘falling’ – 15 victims, ‘falling objects’ – 14 victims, ‘sudden attack of illness’ – 11 people, but
the cause of fatal accidents mentioned was mostly badly organized work (GUS, 2014). Taking into consideration
types of incidents, most people were injured because of ‘falling’ – 7,647 (49 % of all one-off paid compensations),
‘being caught or hit by moving parts of machines and devices’ – 2,047 (13.1 %) and ‘being hit, crushed or bitten by
animals’ – 1,867 (12 %).
Statistics show that there is no voivodeship (territorial unit) in Poland where there have been no recorded
agricultural accident. There are still a high number of accidents in this economic sector. This is why a detailed
analysis of this particular work environment has been conducted .

2. Material and methods

The analysis was conducted amongst farmers running medium-size and small agricultural holdings in central and
eastern Poland. An independent survey was used to conduct the analysis; it included 15 varied multiple-choice
questions, open questions, yes/no questions. The questions were arranged into thematic sections: principles of OHS,
training, maintenance of machines and equipment, use of personal protective equipment, causes and effects of
accidents. The group of respondents selected for the study consisted of 100 farmers aged 20-48. The results were
analysed statistically.

3. Results and analysis

Taking preventive actions leads to raising awareness concerning hazards occurring in a farmer’s work
environment. Access to information about prevention measures and their usage at work indirectly causes the
 Halina Pawlak and Bożena Nowakowicz-Dębek / Agriculture and Agricultural Science Procedia 7 (2015) 209 – 214 211

reduction of a negative effect of hazards, which leads to a decrease in accidents.

In the study conducted, the respondents point to the fact that they actively participate in training organized by
different institutions (fig.2).

Fig.2. Does he/she participate in OHS trainings?

The most popular training sessions and lectures are those organized by Agricultural Social Insurance Fund. One of
the causes of accidents in agriculture is the lack of knowledge of OHS principles and unwillingness to familiarize
oneself with safety instructions for the maintenance of machines and equipment (fig.3).

Fig.3. Does he/she know OHS principles used in agriculture, does he/she familiarize himself/herself with safety instructions for
machines/equipment?

Another hazard occurring in agricultural holdings is the misuse of machines/equipment. Over 20% of the
respondents indicate such a possibility of equipment usage depending on the existing need or the organization of
work in the agricultural holding (fig.4).
212 Halina Pawlak and Bożena Nowakowicz-Dębek / Agriculture and Agricultural Science Procedia 7 (2015) 209 – 214

Fig.4. Are the machines/equipment used according to their proper usage?

During training sessions for farmers the issue of usage of personal protective equipment is raised. The
respondents indicate that they willingly use such equipment; however, using it is often dependent on economical
factors (fig.5). Most often the interviewees use safety goggles (55%) and protective masks (38%) as prevention
measures.

Fig.5. Do you use personal protective equipment?

In contrast, coveralls, and non-slip footwear are not frequently used (20% and 18%). Probably, because their
use requires additional costs.
The interviewees indicate that even though their awareness concerning OHS and the use of personal protective
equipment has been raised, accidents occurred in almost 40% of agricultural holdings (fig.6).
 Halina Pawlak and Bożena Nowakowicz-Dębek / Agriculture and Agricultural Science Procedia 7 (2015) 209 – 214 213

Fig.6. Were there any accidents in the agricultural holding last year?

Respondents asked about other causes of accidents definitely indicated the lack of planning activities, the rush and
clutter on the farm.

4. Conclusions

Agriculture is a high-risk sector, in which thousands of occupational accidents happen every year. In this
sector there is a wide variety of ages. Young people’s knowledge does not correlate with experience of older
farmers. Scientific studies confirm a strong relation between the quality of work in agriculture, observing the
principles of OHS and the risk of injuries and fatalities. It has been shown that practical training sessions for young
farmers have a big influence on the quality of their agricultural holdings and reduction of hazards. Moreover,
important differences have been observed in how agricultural holdings are run by men and women (Ramaswamy
and Mosher, 2015; Kuta and Cież, 2013). Pompeii et al. (2015), just like our own analysis, points to a frequent
misuse of agricultural equipment and use of equipment which has no appropriate protection. It has been shown that
being in a hurry, mess in the agricultural holding, misusing machines are the most common causes of accidents, the
number of which is still the same. In the studied region the accident rate is 13.8 for a thousand of the insured.
During the summer of 2014 there were 6 fatalities and over 1,500 injured.
This is why it is necessary to constantly train farmers and emphasize the importance of being familiar with safety
instructions and health and safety regulations for work safety. The formation of custom to maintain order in the area
around the farm and the organization of the working day, is another factor to eliminate accidents in agriculture. It is
also important to transfer of such information already at the stage of vocational training.

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