Vital safety advice for Herefordshire farmers

Date:

27 January 2011

Release No:

WM331/11

Farmers across Herefordshire are being encouraged to attend a free event next month to gain vital advice on staying safe in the country's most dangerous industry.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is holding an agricultural Safety and Health Awareness Day on Tuesday 22 February at Herefordshire College of Technology's Holme Lacy campus.

Figures from the HSE reveal that 45 people, including four children, died as a result of accidents in the agricultural sector in Britain last year.

HSE is running two half-day sessions which will consist of practical safety demonstrations, delivered by qualified trainers from agricultural sector skills council Lantra.

The trainers will cover the top causes of death, injury and ill health in the industry, including transport, machinery maintenance, falls, livestock handling and respiratory disease.

Harvey Wild, HSE Principal Inspector for Herefordshire, said: "Farming remains the most dangerous occupation in the country and each death is a tragedy for a family as well as for a business.

"This event is an excellent opportunity for farmers to gain practical advice to keep themselves, their families, agricultural workers and other members of the public safe on their farms.

"HSE has run many of these events over the years, and farmers who have attended them have told us that they found them helpful and worthwhile.

"We would strongly recommend that farmers and agricultural workers make every effort to join either the morning or the afternoon session at Holme Lacy and discover how simple, cheap precautions can save lives and avoid people being injured or made ill."

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. Lantra is the UK Sector Skills Council for land-based and environmental industries.

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Issued on behalf of HSE by COI News & PR West Midlands