Safety first: Ag group teaches outdoor safety to MSU students
STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI) – Agricultural workers have to deal with all kinds of conditions.
The founder of Ag Health and Safety Alliance, Carolyn Sheridan, said teaching others how to stay safe when farming is one of her top priorities.
“We are doing our first ever gear up for Ag program for college Ag students. We are spending time talking about a number of hazards on the farm, and also some ways you can protect yourself. It is about helping the students understand hazards, and then the prevention of those hazards,” said Sheridan.
Sheridan also said when farming, you must first understand the dangers of the job, and then prepare based on those risks.
“We kind of started with this whole idea that you need to be aware, and after you are aware you need to think about what the hazard is and what you can do to eliminate that. Then we move into personal protection equipment, do you need to wear a respirator, do you need to wear chemical gloves, or whatever is very specific to that hazard,” said Sheridan.
Mississippi State’s risk manager Leslie Woolington said she hopes the training session better prepares students for their future
“This is just a good opportunity for us to have some health and safety training for our students since they are here to learn. A lot of them need this training so when they go out into the workforce, they will know what personal protection equipment to use and some pesticide safety, and mainly for hazard recognition,” said Woolington.
Sujan Poudel is a student at Mississippi State. He said the training opened his eyes to some of the dangers in his future career, but he feels better prepared.
“As we are working in agriculture, we are exposed to a lot of safety hazards. To be safe from damage and accidents, this training provided knowledge about how to handle outside work properly,” said Poudel.
“After this class, I think we will all have a better understanding of how to safely work with pesticides because that is what we mostly work with in ag, and that will give us a better idea of how to use them,” said Poudel.
More than 30 MSU students took part in the Ag Health and Safety training program.
