The
Kentucky Community Partners for Healthy Farming ROPS Project
: Introduction
Notebook Contents
INTRODUCTION
Resource Materials
Focus and Purpose
Background
Why the Materials Were Develop
QUICK START: LOCATING AND USING THE MATERIALS
What’s Available Now
Notebook Organization and Use
Box 1: Major Sections of the Notebook
How to Find What You Want
This
document is a collection of resource materials for use with
community safety and health
education. The materials were developed and field-tested in
farming communities with federal funds. The materials are
not copyrighted and may be reproduced without permission.
We cannot supply you with multiple copies of the materials.
Therefore, please maintain this
notebook as a set of master copies. Use these master copies
to duplicate and distribute the materials as needed. Additional
hard copies of the complete notebook may be available in the
future from NIOSH and the University of Kentucky’s Southeast
Center for Agricultural Health & Injury Prevention.
The INDEX section of the Kentucky ROPS Notebook web site will
take you directly to an activity when the name of that activity
is double clicked. Additional information about the Kentucky
ROPS Project is provided on the Southeast Center for Agricultural
Health and Injury Prevention web site http://www.mc.uky.edu/scahip.
As you use materials from this collection, please keep us
informed about what you have used, for
what purposes, and with what degree of effectiveness. Please
direct additional comments or inquiries to Henry Cole by letter,
telephone, or e-mail.
The one-page
chart on the next page explains the focus and purpose of the
notebook materials. The top part of the page explains the
problem addressed. The middle part of the page explains the
project goals and the reasons these goals were selected. The
bottom portion of the page describes the community education
activities and materials.
The chart can be used as a handout or as part of a display.
It quickly conveys the purpose and
focus of the Community Partners for Healthy Farming farm safety
program. This single page chart and a one-page chart of each
of its three components are included as the first section
of the notebook materials. These four items are useful for
introducing community leaders and farmers to the nature and
purpose of the program.
 |
(Chart) MS Word File |
 |
(Chart) PDF File |
The materials
in this notebook were developed and field-tested over a three-year
period
with support from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC) and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and
Health (NIOSH). The project was funded because tractor overturns
and falling from moving tractors are the major causes of farming
deaths in Kentucky as well as in many other states. Installing
a tractor roll bar, or Rollover Protective Structure (ROPS),
and a seat belt is a simple and cost effective way to prevent
nearly all of these deaths.
The materials and activities in this notebook present stories
and facts about tractor overturn
injuries and deaths, their terrible costs, and their prevention
by retrofitting older tractors with
ROPS and seat belts or by replacing older tractors without
ROPS with newer ones equipped with ROPS and seat belts. The
materials also include facts about injury and death to second
riders when they fall from tractors and are run over by the
tractor or its trailing equipment. Strategies and actions
to prevent these injury events are presented.
Why the Materials Were Developed
The occupational
death rate to Kentucky farmers is about three times higher
than the
national average. The National Safety Council gathered data
for 31 farming states and reported that tractor-related deaths
averaged 33% of total farming deaths. In Kentucky 61% of farming
deaths involve tractors and more than half of these tractor-related
deaths are caused by tractor overturns. Only 30% of Kentucky’s
farm tractors are equipped with Rollover Protective Structures
(ROPS), easily installed devices that protect the tractor
operator from being crushed during an overturn. During 1994-98,
103 Kentucky farmers died when their tractors overturned or
when they fell off a moving tractor. Investigations suggest
that 101 of these fatalities could have been prevented if
the tractors had been equipped with ROPS and if the operator
had been wearing a seat belt. In addition, every year more
than 5,000 Kentucky farm workers are injured and require medical
treatment at hospital emergency departments. Farm tractors
are involved in 1,100 of these injuries. ROPS and seat belts
also could prevent many of these non-fatal, but costly, injuries.
Developed by the University of Kentucky KY CPHF ROPS Project
during 1996-00 with support from CDC/NIOSH Cooperative Agreements
U07/CCU408035-05-2 and 06-1 and U06/CCU412900-01, -02, and
-03 to the University of Kentucky, Southeast Center for Agricultural
Health and Injury Prevention. Additional
authors and co-authors are listed on individual materials
included in this collection.
Disclaimer and Reproduction Information: Information in
NASD does not represent NIOSH policy. Information included in
NASD appears by permission of the author and/or copyright holder.
More
