Farmers reluctant to use protective gear: study

A two-year study of on-farm health and safety has found the rates of serious injury and fatalities remain higher than in other industrial sectors.

Long work hours, working alone, uncomfortable safety gear, time and economic constraints, and working with equipment unsuited for New Zealand terrain contributed to the toll, the Otago University injury prevention research unit report said.

The study cost $400,000 to carry out.

A separate study, published in the New Zealand Medical Journal last month, suggested legislation may be needed to protect children from dying or being injured on quad bikes.

That study looked at 218 cases where children younger than 16 had been hospitalised after suffering an injury caused by an all terrain vehicle (ATV) between 2000 and 2006.

Federated Farmers said restricting children from riding quad bikes would be impossible to police and pointless and favoured education instead.

But researcher Dr Kirsten Lovelock, who led the Otago University study, said today it found rural children under five were riding on farm vehicles as passengers, while children aged five to nine years were operating quad bikes and motorbikes, playing near machinery, and using firearms.

Though farmers were genuinely concerned about the disease risk and injury rate, and not naive or complacent about issues around chemicals, and machinery, "some of the legendary 'she'll-be-right' attitude still persists".

Dr Lovelock said the problem did not lie only in that attitude.

The study found an "ingrained stoicism" over injury, especially among men, many of whom believed a "serious" injury was one that killed a person or left them unable to work again.

"In the words of one man, a head injury was 'serious' if you 'ended up a cabbage'."

To play up every ailment or injury and to take time off to recover was not economically viable on a small family farm or living on economically marginal properties, Dr Lovelock said.

Only a third of people experiencing injury or loss of work time on farms made an ACC claim, suggesting the real economic burden of farm injury could be significantly greater than now estimated, the report said.

"In some...cases, farmers were subject to social pressure not to don the protective gear," she said.

Overall, the study found that New Zealand farm injury and mortality rates were very similar to those overseas, as were the issues confronting farmers.

Though ATVs such as quad bikes were used every day, only two respondents said they ever wore a seatbelt, while most users left their keys in the ATV while it was unattended.

Younger farmers had had more safety training than the older generation, but many surveyed said that though they had safety gear such as ear plugs, helmets, gloves, respirators, they didn't use it, because the gear was uncomfortable to wear, or the farmers were in too much of a hurry.

Hearing damage was a significant issue for farmers exposed to noise from machinery, firearms and hand-held machinery "and there is a reluctance to wear earplugs".