Farm-work hazard prevention efforts by school-based agricultural education instructors.

OBJECTIVE

To assess current prevention efforts, we examined agricultural work-related safety and health activities by school-based agricultural education instructors in Wisconsin.

METHODS

Questionnaires were administered to 284 high school agricultural education instructors.

RESULTS

Instructors taught agricultural safety and health to 61.5 students during 20.4 hours during the previous year. Extension agents were used most often as resources during preparation and presentation of coursework. Only a minority of instructors (13.6%) agreed that modifying the work to eliminate hazards should be emphasized over training people to work safely around hazards. After issues of time pressures and lack of student interest, the most important problems the instructors felt they faced were the needs for materials and other resources.

CONCLUSION

Safety education alone is unlikely to reduce injuries unless unsafe conditions are modified. Instructors need to emphasize teaching of skills in hazard recognition, identification, and control. Instructors felt they could be more effective with better materials and more time for injury and disease prevention.