Sunday, October 20, 2013

Promoting Agricultural and Rural Health

Upstate New York is home to a good deal of farming and the unique health conditions associated with farming.  In the early 1980's David Pratt MD and John May MD started the Farm Safety and Health project out of Bassett Hospital.  The program was successful enough to become the New York Center for Agricultural Medicine and Health or NYCAMH for short.

NYCAMH educators have written a host of articles covering every aspect of farm safety.  Did you know that the sap from  wild parsnip can cause phyto-photo-dermatits?

Giant Hogweed
The sap from Giant hogweed also causes a similar reaction with photosensitivity as well.

Logging is another high risk occupation that also is commonly done on farms.  Being safe about logging has very little to do with how many trees one cuts down.  It only takes one accident to cause irreversible consequences.  Chainsaws with inertia brakes work best for kickbacks because they are independent of hand positioning.