Progressive Agriculture Safety Days
Progressive Agriculture Safety Days April 2021
Make the play area more fun than the farmstead. Designate safe play areas for children! Children deserve a safe place to play where they can create lasting, fond memories. While the farm can help foster a child's passion and love of agriculture, it is a busy, active workplace. Large equipment and livestock, coupled with a child's curiosity, can lead to a tragic incident.
According to the National Children's Center for Rural and Agricultural Health and Safety, a safe play area is carefully and thoroughly planned in a designated location with limited exposure to hazards such as traffic, agricultural production and environmental concerns. Sadly, the most recent statistics reveal that every three days in the United States, a child dies due to an agriculture-related incident. And, every day, 33 children are injured due to an agriculture-related incident. Sixty percent of youth were not working when they were injured in agriculture.
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Correct messaging is important to ensure the safety of children. Avoid confusing children by replacing sandboxes with corn. A young child will have trouble understanding and identifying the difference between grain in a corn box and grain in a gravity flow wagon. In addition to sending the wrong message, other hazards include choking, allergies, crowding and, as a food source, can attract animals and pests, which can cause illness because of germs from feces. Also, although creative, farm-themed play sets that encourage climbing and playing on equipment resembling the likeness of tractors, silos and harvesters can send unsafe messages to children.
SUCCESS STORY:
"In a follow-up survey given after our Progressive Agriculture Safety Day, many participants said they no longer climb or play on equipment on the farm or furniture around the house." -Tasha Harris, Progressive Agriculture Safety Day Coordinator in Buckhannon,
West Virginia
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> FIND US ONLINE: Visit progressiveag.org or call us at 888-257-3529 for a complete list of all upcoming Safety Days or to see how you can host a Safety Day during 2022 or 2023.
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