UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — A workshop aimed at protecting children and youth who work and/or live on farms, co-hosted by Penn State Extension’s Farm Safety Team, will take place March 28-29 at the Hershey Lodge in Hershey.
The Child Ag Injury Prevention Workshop is designed for those who work in or with the agriculture industry and wish to improve their knowledge and dissemination of child agricultural injury-prevention strategies, according to Michael Pate, Nationwide Insurance Associate Professor of Agricultural Safety and Health in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences.
“This is a very important topic because nearly a quarter of Pennsylvania farm fatalities in 2018 involved youth under the age of 18,” he said. “Children and youth are often untrained, inexperienced, not closely supervised and emotionally or physically immature for many agricultural work tasks. This workshop is critically important for those considering hiring youth or for farm families assigning chores to children.”