Farmers encouraged to attend Cheshire safety event

Date:

7 October 2011

Farmers are being encouraged to attend a free training event in Macclesfield to get to grips with health and safety in one of Britain's most dangerous industries.

Nearly 8,000 free places are being made available at Safety and Health Awareness Days (SHADs) across the country, with the aim of cutting the number of deaths and injuries in future.

The safety event in Cheshire, which has been organised by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), will take place at Chelford Agricultural Centre near Macclesfield on Tuesday 18 October.

95 per cent of the 1,300 farmers surveyed after attending one of last year's safety events said they would recommend them to others. Around three quarters also said the events had greatly increased their understanding of the potential causes of accidents and the actions they could take to prevent deaths and injuries.

Figures from HSE show, on average, between 40 and 50 workers are killed on British farms every year, despite less than 1.5 percent of the population working in the industry.

Practical demonstrations at the event in Chelford will focus on workplace transport, machine safety, working at height, handling livestock and safe lifting.

Tanya Stewart, HSE Principal Inspector in Cheshire, said:

"Many farmers are self-employed or run small family businesses so we want to make sure they're not putting themselves and their livelihoods at risk with poor health and safety.

"We'll be offering simple tips that won't cost a lot to put into practice and could even help to boost productivity. The free events are also an opportunity to catch up with other local farmers and share industry knowledge.

"It's an alarming statistic that farmers are ten times more likely than most workers to be killed while at work. I'd encourage them to give up half a day of their time to come along to the event in Cheshire."

Farmers can arrange to attend the free event in Chelford on 18 October by emailing agriculture.shads@hse.gsi.gov.uk.

Notes to editors

1. The Health and Safety Executive is Britain's national regulator for workplace health and safety. It aims to reduce work-related death, injury and ill health. It does so through research, information and advice; promoting training; new or revised regulations and codes of practice; and working with local authority partners by inspection, investigation and enforcement. www.hse.gov.uk
2. Figures covering the last five years show eight in every 100,000 farmers are killed at work in Great Britain every year, compared to the average figure for workplace deaths of eight in every million.

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