Agricultural safety efforts by county health departments in Wisconsin.

OBJECTIVE

The authors sought to improve the agriculture safety prevention efforts of county health departments in Wisconsin by examining current programs, staffs' perceptions of the farm safety problem, and the need for new resources.

METHODS

A survey instrument was completed by a professional staff member of the local health department in each of Wisconsin's 69 counties.

RESULTS

Usable responses were obtained from 84% of the counties. Forty-five percent of the responding staff members conducted some agricultural safety and health programs, most often health screenings or group meetings conducted collaboratively with county agricultural Extension agents. There were no major differences in county demographics or other service provision variables between staff members who conducted programs and those who did not. Staff members perceived the largest barriers to better safety as lack of staff time and difficulty getting farmers to attend safety programs. Most failed to place more emphasis on training agricultural workers to permanently correct hazards than on training them to work safely around hazards. However, the staff members ranked safety inspection checklists as the most needed new material and ranked Extension agents and farmers as the most appropriate people to conduct inspections using such checklists.

CONCLUSION

County public health professionals want more staff time and new materials to increase the effectiveness of their agricultural safety efforts. Encouraging agricultural workers and family members to identify and correct hazards would be a more effective use of staff time than training people to work safely around hazards.