Dr Morgaine is a lecturer in dental public health in the University of Otago School of Dentistry's oral sciences department.
She focused her earlier doctoral research on evaluating the first two years of a national "FarmSafe" safety awareness seminar, which had been initiated by ACC and Federated Farmers in 2003, and backed by several other organisations.
She gave a public talk, titled "She'll be right, mate! Programme evaluation of a national farm safety intervention", at the Otago department of preventive and social medicine last week.
Farming deaths and injuries were clearly a significant public health problem.
Farmers and other agricultural workers accounted for only about 9% of New Zealand's working population but generated about 60% of the country's export earnings.
An Otago University Injury Prevention Research Unit study showed that farmers and farm workers accounted for nearly a quarter of the country's annual work-related injury fatalities.
Her research showed safety awareness had increased among FarmSafe seminar participants.
Studies of similar farm safety programmes overseas had found some increase in safety awareness, but had also not demonstrated resulting reductions in farm accident death rates.
Dr Morgaine said "she'll be right" attitudes tended to add to injury risks.
International studies showed that farm workers who were "fatalistic" about farm-related injuries and believed they could not reduce environmental risks were themselves more likely to be hurt.
Some individual farmers had clearly been saved from death or serious injury through their participation in the continuing FarmSafe programme.
One farmer had said that, after attending a safety seminar, he had donned a protective visor while working with a spinning grindstone.
He had been uninjured when the grindstone had spun off, smashing the visor.
