Farm Safety Day!

"Farm Safety/Ag Awareness Day is to familiarize new residents with the agricultural 'culture' of Quincy and surrounding areas as well as to introduce residents to the inherent safety issues faced by many farm families...You will learn from experienced FFA members of the dangers of working on farms, dangers associated with farm chemicals and handling livestock."

A lot of really bad things can happen to you on a farm. Grain can drown you in a matter of seconds. Hydraulic lines on farming equipment can perforate your skin, injecting your flesh with highly pressurized oil. You could get Silo Filler's Disease, Farmer's Lung, or Organic Dust Toxic Syndrome from assorted gases and dust coming off of farm products in enclosed spaces. And of course you could get caught and crushed up in many ways by combines, power takeoffs, augers, and other assorted mechanical equipment accidents.

Because so many of the patients seen at the clinic live a farming lifestyle and are exposed to these risks on a regular basis, the new interns (and sometimes a visiting medical student) go on a farm safety tour at a nearby family farm. In addition to learning the basics of tractor safety, we learned about other aspects of farming life that can lead to chronic conditions. For example, when 80 year-old Farmer Bob comes waddling in to your office complaining of back issues, you might consider that his vertebrae are all messed up from decades of being jostled from bumpy riding on an old John Deere and lifting 50-lb bags of seed two at a time.

Other aspects of farming life also contribute to health issues. After a tough morning of watching what farmers do, we stopped for lunch at a local eatery: The Paloma Diner. This where Farmer Bob meets up with his friends (probably named Hank and Jim) to chow down after burning several hundred calories on the job. The food, while delicious, is definitely rib-sticking and loaded with things that enable cardiologists to send their kids to private schools, especially once Bob gets older and no longer has as active a role in running his farm.