Cover Story Sidebar 1: So you think an accident won't happen to you?

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

If you are an owner operator, think again, because you are the most vulnerable member of the agricultural community

by MARY BAXTER

You know your equipment; you've used it day in and day out for years. So have your son and daughter. An accident is the last thing on your mind. Then, one day, one of you gets too close. And it happens.

Many of those who own and operate their own farms without the assistance of others may think an accident won't ever happen to them.

But statistics suggest these farm owners and operators, who make up between 75 and 80 per cent of Ontario's 82,410 farmers, are more likely to die in a farm accident than anyone else on their farm. The same likely holds true in the case of accidents which don't result in loss of life, say those who compile such statistics. They don't know for sure, since no records are kept on those most likely to experience an incident.

This lack of numbers is just one example of how farmers and their families fail to trigger occupational health and safety measures that many others within our society take for granted.

Dean Anderson is chief executive officer of the Farm Safety Association, a non-profit organization that raises awareness about farm safety issues. Knowing what the trends are helps his organization to plan its farm safety awareness efforts without wasting time on peripheral concerns. In the case of owner-operators, Anderson says that their tendency to take on the risky jobs themselves rather than delegate to employees is the main reason behind the disturbing mortality trend.

The Association does not compile statistics, but monitors them from sources such as the Ontario Ministry of Labour, the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board and the Canadian Agricultural Injury Surveillance Program (CAISP).

hen it comes to gathering statistics on farm deaths, CAISP maintains the most comprehensive national record. The information compiled is sobering. In the decade between 1990 and 2000, for example, there were 933 farm-related deaths in Canada. Of those 494 were owner operators and 128 children of an owner operator.

When it comes to accidents where no loss of life has occurred, the details get sketchier. The only information that could be found outlining the number of injuries to farm operators or their family members was in Statistics Canada's 2006 census. According to the 2006 census, there were 3,039 farms that reported an accident in Ontario in the 12 months prior to May, 2006, of which 2,475 affected operators and 397 other family members. In Canada that same year, farmers working on their own accounted for 11,891 of the 13,801 accidents reported.

Yet these numbers don't indicate which accidents might have been fatal and they come with the caveat that injuries are typically under-reported in census information.

At the Ontario Ministry of Labour, records concerning incidents involving farm owner-operators simply don't exist - unless the owner happens to employ others on the farm.

Wayne De L'Orme, co-ordinator of the ministry's industrial program, explains that under the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA) the ministry only has jurisdiction on farms where there are employees. All farms with paid workers are required to comply with the Act, while farms with seasonal workers must comply during the course of the workers' employment.

Since the Act was extended to cover agricultural workers in June 2006, there have been instances when the ministry was called in to investigate an incident, only to discover that there are no employees at the operation, he says. Because the ministry doesn't have jurisdiction in those cases, "we basically have to walk away" and no records are kept.

The experience is frustrating, he says. "Fatalities are obviously incredibly tragic, but they are even more so when nothing is learned from it."

Anderson agrees that the lack of legislative safeguards for owner operators without employees can be problematic. They aren't required to have a formal work safety plan. Nor do they have to enroll in workplace safety insurance (they can buy it, but most won't because of prohibitively high premiums, says Anderson). They're not required to obtain training or licensing on the equipment they operate and there is no age restriction on those who may operate equipment or occupy a work site.

Many work in remote locations, where they could not be found for hours if an accident happens.

"Yet often, if an incident occurs, it's very critical to get medical attention quickly," he says.

Nevertheless, Anderson and De L'Orme both agree that legislating farmers is not the best way to safeguard them from the risks complacency can bring. And Dr. Rob Brison, one of CAISP's directors, notes that there is only one area in the developed world - Scandinavia - which has brought the entire agricultural sector under a workers' compensation program.

It has "always been that way," and right now, there's no general interest in changing the status quo, he says. BF