The 17th - 23rd July 2023 is National Farm Safety Week - a week dedicated to raising awareness of farm safety issues in rural communities across Australia.
This year’s Farm Safety Week campaign, called ‘Stay on the Safe Side’ focusses on tractor, vehicle, and machinery safety, in an effort to raise awareness of the alarming injury and fatality statistics attributing 64% of on-farm fatalities in 2022 to farm vehicles or mobile farm machinery, and reinforce important safety messaging to help farmers create a safer working environment. The underlying message of the campaign is that farmers and farm workers need to take ownership of their own safety by recognising that safety is a choice, or a series of choices that they make every day.
The best thing you can do in first aid is prevention - stopping a first aid emergency before it's even happened. However, accidents do happen and it's important to be prepared for that unexpected emergency.
We'd like to take this important opportunity to highlight the importance of a comprehensive farm focused first aid kit and equipment for first aid emergencies that can happen in remote areas.
When buying a First Aid kit for the farm, the kits should be suitable to treat the types of injury that occur and the number of people that work on the farm. These injuries include:
• snake and spider bites
• sprains, cuts, burns and broken bones
• crush injury to hands, feet arms and legs
• electrocution
• drowning
• eye injury
• amputation of arms and legs in unguarded PTOs, grain augers, post hole diggers and drivers
• quad bike crush injury
Below are a few of our top recommendations for farm appropriate first aid kits and equipment.
R2 Farm & Outback First Aid Kits
- 1-25 persons
- Complies with WHS 2019 Regulations for Workplaces.
- Equipped for those first aid emergencies on the farm.
- It contains both Eye ‘n’ Wound and Outdoor modules, to cater to the outdoor work environment.
- Available in Soft Pack case.
R2 Remote Area First Aid Kits
- 1-25 persons
- Complies with WHS 2019 Regulations for Workplaces and Remote Areas.
- Includes 2 additional modules; Burns and an Outdoor module, to suit the common injuries that occur on remote sites.
- Portable case options available making it an ideal kit for builders and tradesmen who require a compliant first aid kit on-site with them.
- Available in Soft Pack case.
Snake and Spider Bite First Aid Kit
- A popular addition to any first aid kit.
- Compact and lightweight kit for your backpack or emergency kit.
- Quality hospital grade contents.
- Full colour Snake and Spider Identification Sheet.
- Easy to follow Symptoms and Treatment Guide.
- Flexible soft pouch presentation for excellent portability.
- Available in compact soft pack.
R1 Remote Vehicle First Aid Kits
- Complies with WHS 2019 Regulations for Work Vehicles in Remote Areas.
- The ideal grab and run deluxe Ute kit.
- Grab and run design with Snake & Spider Bite treatment contents for those unexpected emergencies. It also includes a torch, whistle and other dressings for remote areas.
- Available in soft pack cases.
Defibrillators
FastAid highly recommends your farm is equipped with a defibrillator to ensure you are adequately prepared and ready to respond to first aid emergencies. It's particularly important in rural areas where medical assistance is longer than 20 minutes away.
- The RD500 is a semi-automatic defibrillator that is operated by using two simple buttons.
- It features clear and simple voice prompts for users, and visual prompts to assist the rescuer in noisy or multi-lingual environments.
- The RD500 features unique patient-specific CPR feedback which instructs the user to push harder, faster, slower to reassure you that you’re doing it right.
- 8-year warranty with lowest cost of ownership over 8 years (PAD & battery).
Want to get involved this farm safety week? Head over to farmsafe.org.au for more resources and information about farm safety week.
Questions about our farm first aid kits or equipment? We're here to help!