Farming’s occupational health needs a proper policy

An occupational health strategy should be part of effective health and safety management for any business, says Oliver Dale.

While safety is high on the agenda of most farm businesses, regular monitoring and assessment of the underlying health of individual team members is not common practice.

Identifying any conditions such as diabetes or the early stages of a heart disease or arthritis as early as possible means effective treatment can begin. This protects the individual and reduces risk in the business, it can also help reinforce the sense of a supportive culture.

Failure to recognise physical or mental illness can result in substantial costs and issues. Apart from the impact of any accident or serious illness for the individual, the whole team including management and the wider farming family can be affected.  

See also: Check health and safety risks of contractors on your farm

An occupational health strategy should be developed with a safety adviser. It needs to dovetail with the policies and procedures of your terms and conditions of employment and in particular with your health and safety policy.

Drawing up this strategy is not necessarily a lengthy, time-consuming or costly process. However, it requires a wider approach to be taken to the obligation to provide a safe working environment. This needs to cover all those who work on or visit the farm, including family members.

Alongside immediate physical risks which are usually fairly easy to identify, the focus should be widened to assess the likely longer term impact of exposure to dusts, extremes of temperature or agricultural chemicals, for example.

The mental well-being of the individual should also be considered. Long hours, a lot of lone working and adverse weather are common features of farm work which can deeply affect the individual.

Farming has one of the highest suicide rates of any sector and every incidence is not only a personal and family tragedy but is likely to affect the whole team profoundly. The impact of a fatal accident on the farm is also devastating and likely to be long-term for the employer and the wider team. Therefore, any measure which may identify risk or help to reduce it is well worthwhile.

How to draw up an occupational health strategy

Assess health and welfare

Try to develop an objective assessment of staff welfare using a simple structured set of questions that enable a discussion around how individuals feel their health and welfare is.

While some might feel this is intrusive, it is part of your duty of care as an employer to provide a safe workplace and these conversations can help to foster more open communication.

Knowing about any underlying health issues, including stress, which may affect their work can help you to fulfil that obligation. The employer must make any reasonable adjustments necessary to help the employee carry out their work.

A basic medical questionnaire can be developed, establishing a record of health status, to identify changes or trends over time. Agriculture’s relatively long employee length of service is a great strength but also means that any work-related deterioration in the health of an individual is more clearly or easily connected to their employment.

Monitor long-term exposure impact

The long term impact of exposure to substances that could be hazardous to health should be monitored. Two obvious examples are field-applied pesticides or veterinary medicines. While there is clear guidance around the use of these substances, in practice there are occasions where someone comes into contact accidentally with materials they are using.

Basic tests for lung function and blood tests to establish whether injurious exposure has occurred are two ways in which health status can be assessed. The exact type and scope of the assessments should be specified by a competent person.

Careful recording and analysis of the outcome will ensure that any trends, particularly if negative, are fully recognised and appropriate action taken.

Make physical tasks easier

Farming is one of the most physical trades, with a lot of manual handling, lifting and bending, often in difficult conditions with uneven terrain, in adverse weather and over long periods.

Often people simply get on with the job and won’t complain. Unfortunately, for a significant proportion of us, that aching joint or stiff wrist develops over time into ailments such as arthritis with significant long-term and irreversible pain and discomfort to the individual and financial cost to the business.

Asking the team whether they are experiencing any joint problems is a means to establish whether further basic, simple changes could be made. Could you invest in that wheel-changer or some knee-pads for working on the workshop floor, for example?

Oliver Dale is managing director of farm health and safety specialist Safety Revolution.