Worker Safety Monitoring for Agriculture
There are over 700,000 agricultural workers employed in the United States which include growing and harvesting crops. Often these workers are considered lone workers due to large areas to cover while on duty and the use of machinery to help them complete tasks. Agriculture ranks among the most hazardous industries due to the use of chemicals and the risk of injury associated with the constant use of heavy machinery. Typically, farmers are exposed to high risk of fatal and nonfatal injuries, lung diseases, skin diseases, and other cancer-related illnesses due to chemical use and prolonged sun exposure.
In the state of California, the Occupational Safety and Health Act has implemented a Heat Illness Prevention Program, Title 8 Section 3395 to address the risk by heat illness. Outdoor workers involved in the Agriculture industry and the transportation or delivery of agriculture products are required to comply with OSHA Heat and Illness prevention program. Some of these regulations include:
Ensuring that effective communication by voice, observation, or electronic means is maintained so that employees at the work site can contact a supervisor when necessary. An electronic device, such as a cell phone or text messaging device, may be used for this purpose only if cell reception in the area is reliable.
Observing employees for alertness and signs or symptoms of heat illness. The employer shall ensure effective employee observation/monitoring by implementing one or more of the following:
The supervisor or designee observation of 20 or fewer employees, or
A mandatory buddy system, or
Regular communication with solo employee such as by radio or cellular phone, or
Other effective means of observation.
Designating one or more employees on each work site as authorized to call for emergency medical services and allowing other employees to call for emergency services when no designated employee is available.
The safety of agricultural workers should be your top priority, do you have the right protocols for your team when an incident occurs? Implementing a remote worker safety monitoring solution can help.
How can Scatterling help?
Proactive notifications
Scatterling does not require a worker to signal for help manually. For example, if a worker was to get in trouble and can’t call for help, our lone worker monitoring software will sound an alarm once the timer expires and let the monitor know they need help.
HIGH RISK CHECK-IN TIMERS:
Due to the isolated nature of agriculture means that workers are often on their own or located in a remote location and may involve heavy machinery and large animals. Depending on the hazard risk scenario, workers can set their check-in duration to under 15 minutes or every hour. If the worker misses a check-in, a co-worker and supervisor would be immediately notified of a possible emergency and be sent the exact location, and any other details the worker has previously supplied, such as voicemails and work itinerary.
Emergency Panic button:
Scatterling also has integration to manually signal for help with a blue tooth panic button. When triggered, all of the emergency contacts will be notified of a confirmed emergency, and sent any voicemails that have previously recorded, details of location, and work profile.
FULL DEVICE INTEGRATION:
Scatterling’s lone worker app can be used on any device, such as smartphones, laptops, landlines, and pagers, that employees might already be carrying with them. Therefore, they do not need to carry any new or excess equipment with them at any time.
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