FACTS

1. Each farm shop is unique in size and design. One thing all farm shops have in common are the everyday hazards found in housekeeping, chemical storage, and obstacles that can cause slips, trips and falls. 
2. Small farm shops are often housed in aging buildings where electrical wiring may have deteriorated or is no longer adequate for electrical needs. Wiring may have also been installed by someone lacking important electrical wiring experience. 
3. Air tank hoses often lie on the floor of smaller farm shops. Their presence greatly increases the chances that someone will trip and fall. Lighting is often insufficient and dim, multiplying the risk of many other hazards.
4. While some standard hazards pose a lower risk in a newer and larger farm shop, the expanded space allows for activities such as arc welding that can pose additional risks.
5. Larger shops can accommodate more people, which means several activities can occur at the same time leaving greater opportunity for someone to be injured by work activity going on next to them.
6. Large shops often have overhead storage and include a loft. A loft requires an adequate stairway with a handrail.
7. When engines are running inside the shop, carbon monoxide poses a serious threat.

STATS

• Around 15.1% of agricultural fatalities involved powered tools, equipment and appliances in 2010 to 2014 combined. 
• Between 2015–2019 3% of workshop fatalities occurred due to contact with electricity.  This is six deaths (on average) each year. 
• In 2012, 374 farmers and farm workers died from farm workshops, resulting in a fatality rate of 20.2 deaths per 100,000 workers. 
• On average, 113 youth less than 20 years of age die annually from farm-related injuries with most of these deaths occurring to youth 16-19 years of age (34%).
• Every day, about 167 agricultural workers suffer a lost-work-time injury. 5 % of these injuries result in permanent impairment.
• In 2012, an estimated 14,000 youth were injured on farms; 2,700 of these injuries were due to farm workshops.
• 25 % of injuries are the direct result of poor “housekeeping” in the workshop.  Trips, slips, and falls account for the bulk of these mishaps.