New personal protective equipment for cutting and shearing: Finger-safe

The personal protective equipment used in agriculture does not include specific devices and due to this fact they are not able to provide a suitable degree of protection of the operator. In particular, the hand is the part of the body that is more prone to serious injury (e.g. amputation). The aim of this study was to test new safety principals for reducing the risk of cutting. We performed 10 types of different tests that led us to the identification of gloves resistant to mechanical action as well as to cutting. The prototype has demonstrated a high protective efficiency against tools such as pneumatic or manual scissors. In conclusion, the study recommends the use of gloves with elements which absorb and dissipate energy and not just simple cut resistant gloves. \ua9 2015 Sirio R. S. Cividino et al

Fatalities resulting from falls from height in agricultural contexts

Agricultural work encompasses a variety of activities which carry with them different risks. One such activity is working at height, a frequent cause of fatal accidents. The aim of this work is to describe and discuss a typical case of a fall from height in order to understand the traumatic consequences of such accidents, to analyze the dynamics and lesions, and highlight the dangers of working at height. These falls, which may involve farm workers who are officially or unofficially employed, can produce injuries whose seriousness is not always strictly correlated to the height of the fal

Definition of a methodology for gradual and sustainable safety improvements on farms and its preliminary applications

In many productive sectors, ensuring a safe working environment is still an underestimated problem, and especially so in farming. A lack of attention to safety and poor risk awareness by operators represents a crucial problem, which results in numerous serious injuries and fatal accidents. The Demetra project, involving the collaboration of the Regional Directorate of INAIL (National Institute for Insurance against Accidents at Work), aims to devise operational solutions to evaluate the risk of accidents in agricultural work and analyze the dynamics of occupational accidents by using an observational method to help farmers ensure optimal safety levels. The challenge of the project is to support farmers with tools designed to encourage good safety management in the agricultural workplaces. \ua9 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland

Campionamento delle Fumonisine durante la raccolta del mais

Food contamination from mycotoxins is an emerging problem in the European Community. Fumonisine, a toxin produced by several funguses (Fusarium spp.), is often found in cereals, and particularly in maize, and has been related to severe diseases in humans and animals. The problem has been acknowledged by UE authorities who have set legal limits for Fumonisine contamination of agricultural products. The objective of this study was to develop a sampling system for assessing the presence of Fusarium spores during combine harvesting of cereals. The collected data of the Fusarium spore presence with other variables (dry seed, irrigation, weather variables etc.) could be useful to provide a prediction model able to asses the contamination degree by Fumonisine. This would enable the farmer to separate contaminated products before storage. The system developed is easy to install on any combine, and the operations required to collect the samples are quick and easy

Agricultural Health and Safety Survey in Friuli Venezia Giulia

The work in the agricultural sector has taken on a fundamental role in the last decades, due to the still too high rate of fatal injuries, workplace accidents, and dangerous occurrences reported each year. The average old age of agricultural machinery is one of the main issues at stake in Italy. Numerous safety problems stem from that; therefore, two surveys were conducted in two different periods, on current levels of work safety in agriculture in relation to agricultural machinery’s age and efficiency, and to show the levels of actual implementation of the Italian legislation on safety and health at work in the agricultural sector. The surveys were carried out, considering a sample of 161 farms located in the region Friuli Venezia Giulia (North-East of Italy). The research highlights the most significant difficulties the sample of farms considered have in enforcing the law. One hand, sanitary surveillance and workers’ information and training represent the main deficiencies and weakest points in family farms. Moreover, family farms do not generally provide the proper documentation concerning health and safety at workplaces, when they award the contract to other companies. On the other hand, lack of maintenance program for machinery and equipment, and of emergency plans and participation of workers’ health and safety representative, are the most common issues in farms with employees. Several difficulties are also evident in planning workers’ training programs. Furthermore, the company physician’s task is often limited to medical controls, so that he is not involved in risk assessment and training. Interviews in heterogeneous samples of farms have shown meaningful outcomes, which have subsequently been used to implement new databases and guidelines for Health and Safety Experts and courses in the field of Work Safety in agriculture. In conclusion, although the legislation making training courses for tractor operators and tractor inspections compulsory dates back to the years 2012 and 2015, deadlines have been prorogued, and the law is not yet fully applied, so that non-upgraded unfit old agricultural machinery is still being used by many workers, putting their health and their own lives at risk

The impact on the landscape, environment and society of new productive chains in a mountain area: strategies, analysis and future perspectives

Zootechnical farms enhance the preservation and valorization of the environmental value of the surroundings in marginal areas, such as the mountains of Friuli Venezia Giulia. An important tool for relaunching mountain animal husbandry can be the promotion of an appropriate policy to maintain and develop local food chains, supporting typical products, tightly related to the peculiarity of the agro-ecosystem. The aim of the chain <em>Carne della Montagna Friulana-Carne di Qualità</em> is to create a cooperation among primary producers, transformation companies, sellers and research institutes, in order to develop innovative pathways throughout the production of meat in Carnia (UD). The project was designed in 2007/08 but it was operative from 2010, with a first batch of animals. The stakeholders subscribed a chain agreement, adopting production guidelines and a commercial trademark. Since the meat is not yet ready, the present paper is, in part, an analysis of the preliminary modification of the operative context and, in part, a previsional examination of the possible effect of the activation of this production chain on the area. The results investigated economic, social, landscape, technical and technological (related to food safety) elements. It can be observed, by an introductive evaluation, that this productive circuit may valorize the resources of this mountain area and can enhance zootechnics in mountain areas. The guidelines allow a vertical integration throughout the production path, coordinating all the operators. This type of production can be considered a niche product, related to the territory, with the maximum guarantee for the consumers. The environmental worthiness is the recovering and the improving of these marginal, agricultural areas. Actually, an overall evaluation can be done only from the summer of 2011, when data such as the organoleptic and qualitative characteristics, selling prices, level of appreciation by the customers and landscape effects will be available