Advancing Agricultural Safey with Public Health Research

Good epidemiological research underpins agricultural safety knowledge and this work has included the development of data definitions, papers about data and epidemiology papers.

A recent publication:

• Kerri-Lynn Peachey, Richard C Franklin & Tony Lower (2023) A Summary of Fatal Injury Surveillance Methods in Australian Agriculture and Their Impact on Safety Policies and Practices, Journal of Agromedicine, DOI: 10.1080/1059924X.2023.2281516 

The farm is more that just a business', with people living working and also playing on farms. This multi-modal use of land places children at risk of being injured.  However the good news is that there is a lot children can do and some fantastic resource material produced by Farmsafe Australia, a recent commentary on child safety on farms can be read here.

Recent publications include:

• Franklin, R. C. (2023). Safeguarding youth from agricultural injury and illness: The Australian experience. Frontiers in public health, 10, 1059297. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2022.1059297/full
• Lee, B. C., Becot, F. A., Bendixsen, C., Benny, C., Lundqvist, P., Swenson, A., ... & Franklin, R. C. (2023). Safeguarding youth from agricultural injury and illness: international experiences. Frontiers in public health, 11.  https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1270578/full
•  Peden, A. E., Tran, T. P., Alonzo, D., Hawke, C., & Franklin, R. C. (2022). Adolescence is an opportunity for farm injury prevention: A call for better age-based data disaggregation. Frontiers in public health, 10, 1036657. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2022.1036657/full

A recent collaboration with Work Science explores mobile plant safety on farms.  Stay tuned for more detail as we publish the results.  

 This Australian first study explored the safety of large agricultural vehicles (LAVs) on public roads. LAVs are a requirement of farming and need to be on public roads as part of the business of agriculture and to ensure food and fibre productions. From the research, it is clear that different types of LAV are on roads all year round, however are predominately moving small distances during the day. While there are incidents on public roads, the numbers are small, but more work could be undertaken immediately in educating the public about how to interact with LAV on public roads. These community education campaigns could highlight the need for LAVs to be on roads and what to do when you encounter them, as-well-as a wider campaign around respecting all people on roads. Incorporating information in the written test to achieve your driver’s license was identified as a cost effective ongoing way to educate new drivers. 

Publications include:

•  Franklin, R. C., King, J. C., & Miller, L. (2018). Large agricultural vehicles on roads in Australia. Available with permission from https://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/57558/ and the media release is available at https://nff.org.au/media-release/dont-forget-to-share-the-road-slow-down-to-help-farmers-grow-food-and-fibre/
•  King, J. C., Franklin, R. C., & Miller, L. (2021). Traversing community attitudes and interaction experiences with large agricultural vehicles on rural roads. Safety, 7(1), 4.  https://www.mdpi.com/2313-576X/7/1/4

Working with leading beef producers in Australia, a range of research and activities are being undertaken. Currently, we have a benchmarking safety performance project with corporate agriculture businesses.  

In this partnership, we recently produced a 'Safe horse handling and riding Guide for the Pastoral Industry 2022' (see downloads).

Stay tuned for more about agricultural safety research and activities