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AgriSafe in Action:

August 2020

AgriSafe Welcomes New Total Farmer

Health Director

Tara Haskins, DNP, RN Total Farmer Health Director

Joining AgriSafe as the Total Farmer Health Director, Dr. Haskins brings 33 years of clinical experience as a registered nurse in mental health, medical-surgical, and critical care. She comes to us from North Louisiana, close to her childhood home in Bienville Parish. Dr. Haskins holds a Psychiatric-Mental Health Master of Science in Nursing with a concentration in substance dependence treatment and a Doctorate of Nursing Practice in Forensics with a focus on rural sexual assault services. Dr. Haskins is an AgriSafe Nurse Scholar, Parkinson Foundation Edmond J. Safra Nurse Faculty Scholar, and a Rural Health Fellow with the National Rural Health Association. Building on 21 years of direct patient care, she worked in academia for 12 years as a nurse educator coordinating mental health content and facilitating innovative clinical experiences.

Her professional roles have included crisis interventionist for clients with suicidal ideation and psychological distress, coordinator/consultant for substance detox in both outpatient treatment and drug court, rural school-based telehealth consultant, development consultant for a rural-focused undergraduate nursing program in the South Texas frontier region, and policy collaborator for rural disaster preparedness. Dr. Haskins has published and presented nationally and internationally on a wide range of topics such as patient advocacy in opioid treatment, strategies to promote empathy for mental illness and stigmatized populations, caregiving with Parkinson's disease, rural telehealth, and rural disaster preparedness. In addition to her new role at AgriSafe, she serves as a faculty consultant for Sul Ross University in Alpine, Texas, and advocates for rural healthcare policy at a federal level.

Spotlight on Ag Youth: Carson Rudd

FFA Student Carson Rudd Collaborates with AgriSafe to Bring Awareness to Rural Mental Health - RuralNetworkTV

AgriSafe is proud to spotlight FFA student Carson Rudd in a collaboration to bring awareness to rural mental health courtesy of RuralNetworkTV. In a statement Carson expressed, "I quickly became a huge advocate for this devastating problem [mental health], and I wanted to be one of the people to start the conversation." See his spotlight here.

Carson Rudd is a Sophomore at Carroll Jr./Sr. High School currently serving as our FFA’s Chapter Sentinel from Flora, Indiana. If you know of a young advocate who would like to be featured in the next Spotlight on AgYouth, contact Knesha Rose-Davison at krose@agrisafe.org.

National Farm Safety & Health Week -

September 20-26, 2020

AgriSafe, NECAS and several partners are planning a week of health and safety presentations to make sure our ag workers and operators are safe and well informed! Save the date September 20-26, 2020!

Ring-Ring: How Clean is Your Cell Phone?

Dirty hands? You wash them. Dirty Cellphone? You clean it. Or do you? Technology has transformed our lives with its ease of use and ability to connect. Cellphones have become a point of care tool and resource in many work settings including agriculture. Research completed by the Nursing Research Council at an American Nurses Credentialing Center Magnet hospital revealed multidrug-resistant pathogens exist on clinician’s mobile phones. The same colonized bacteria were also found on clinician’s hands, a potential source for nosocomial pathogens. Eww!

The fix-70% isopropyl alcohol wipes and 15 seconds of friction to clean and disinfect. Simple task to add to our everyday infection prevention routine.
Click Here to learn more!

OSHA: COVID-19 Wallet Cards for Ag

New! OSHA COVID-19 Wallet Cards for Agriculture

Agricultural workers including farm workers are deemed essential workers and are excluded from stay-at-home orders by the federal government. To help remedy rising safety concerns OSHA has released the COVID-19 wallet cards for agriculture. These are available in English and Spanish.

To download, please use the following links: (Two-sided)

Click Here for English

Click Here for Spanish

August Health Spotlight: Eye Injury

Eye injuries are a leading cause of lost work time. Every day can bring multiple exposures: dust, gravel, grain particles, hay and straw debris, welding elements such a slag burns, flying and falling objects (think nails, wood chips, etc.) and glare. Chemical burns can result from pesticide exposure and cleaning agents. When selecting or recommending protective eyewear, it is important to emphasize the need to choose only eyewear displaying the ANSI Z87 or Z87+ markings. Approved prescription safety glasses carry a Z87-2 marking. The American National Standards Institute (ANSI)sets these performance standards and they are the basis for the OSHA standard 29 (CFR) 1910.133.

Do not share eye protection to reduce the risk of contracting a contagious eye disease from another worker.
Even though sunglasses are important for working outdoors, they are not considered to be eye protection.
Have an emergency eye wash station ready to go and know where it is at!

For more information: Click Here

Upcoming Events in Ag

Recognize Safe & Sound Week,

August 10-16, 2020

Safe + Sound Week is a nationwide event held each August that recognizes the successes of workplace health and safety programs and offers information and ideas on how to keep America's workers safe.

Free ASHCA Webinar:

ASHCA Achievement Awards & Lightning Talks

Wed, Aug 12, 2020

1:00 PM - 2:00 PM CDT

Missing your summer farm show? The Upper Midwest Agricultural Safety and Health Center (UMASH) is bringing the show to you. The free UMASH Online Expo: A 20/20 Look at Ag Health, Safety and Wellness will occur from Monday, August 10 - Thursday, August 13. AgriSafe has a virtual booth in the UMASH online expo and AgriSafe staff member Linda Emanuel will be presenting "Can the Bandana….Use an N95" on August 11, 2020 at 11:00 am!