How Does Safety Rate on Your Farm?

With funds provided by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food, the Farm Safety Association has developed this safety checklist to help you create a safe and healthy working environment for you and your family. Please feel free to copy or duplicate the list and give it to others in your area.

Each year in Ontario, farm family members die or are injured in tragic accidents. Accidents can result in injury, death, or property damage, and are often caused by unsafe acts or conditions, faulty equipment, or human error.

An INSPECTION of your workplace will help prevent injuries by identifying hazards, recording them, and taking corrective action. You must be committed to correcting the hazards in some manner if you are to succeed in reducing accident potential.

Aspects of a workplace inspection

Your inspection should not be taken lightly. You may need several family members or an outside set of eyes to see some hazards that you may pass every day. No work area can be 100% free of hazards. Include the questions "WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, and HOW" for each area examined.

When to inspect

Many locations on a farm can be inspected year 'round . The home, buildings and other structures are examples of this. Machinery and equipment can best be inspected when gearing up for work in early spring, or in operation. Static inspection examines the machine itself (shields and guards, decals, wear and tear on parts), while an inspection during equipment operation looks at unsafe acts of the operator or hazards in the field.

How to complete the inspection

As you go through the various sections of the following inspection checklist, answer the questions or statements by checking Yes or No. If you have answered Yes, no action is required. If you have answered No, then a hazard exists requiring corrective action. You should then determine a priority level for the hazard to indicate the urgency of the corrective action:
 

A -	Major -
	Life-threatening or serious
	injury potential
B -	Serious -
	Injury or property damage -
	correct in the short term
C -	Minor -
	Long term action can correct
	the problem

Indicate a realistic target date to correct the hazard on the sheets. When a hazard has been corrected, check it off in the last column.

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