Scott Webb (Host): Today's podcast is made possible through funding from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health via the National Children's Center for Rural and Agricultural Health and Safety Emerging Issues Program. Learn more about the Carle Center for Rural Health and Farm Safety by visiting carle.org/farmsafety. That's C-A-R-L-E.org/farmsafety for resources, information, tips, and more. Let us help keep you and your family healthy and safe. Joining us today is Marsha Salzewedel, Project Scientist at the National Farm Medicine Center to tell us about youth working on farms and women as influencers in safety and health. Welcome to Let's Talk with Carle Health, a podcast featuring Carle doctors, partners, and other experts, bringing you topics important to your health and wellness.

Maggie McKay (Host): I'm your host, Maggie McKay. So good to have you here today, Marsha. Thank you for making the time.

Marsha Salzewedel, PhD: Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.

Host: Just to start off with, could you please tell us what the Agricultural Youth Worker Guidelines are and why we need them?

Marsha Salzewedel, PhD: The Agricultural Youth Work Guidelines are a set of guidelines that are intended for parents and people that supervise young workers to use in order to assess the abilities of that worker and ensure that the worker can perform the job and do it safely. The reason they're important is because more youth die working in agriculture than in all other industries combined.

And one of the main reasons for the injuries and the fatalities or the deaths that we see in these young workers is because oftentimes these children and these youth are doing jobs that don't match their abilities. They just simply don't have the mental abilities or the physical abilities to be able to do the job safely.

And so these guidelines actually let you compare a youth's abilities to what the job needs and assess whether that youth can actually safely do the job.

Host: And what age range do they cover?

Marsha Salzewedel, PhD: The guidelines were developed to cover what we call children and youth, which most of the time is considered to be under 18 years of age. However, when we talk with our child development specialists, they indicated to us that as far as the mental and the cognitive abilities go, that oftentimes many people don't fully develop until the age of 25, that adolescent brain is not fully developed until the age of 25. So because of that, the top age on these actually says 16 plus, and they are intended to be used with young workers but potentially all the way up to the age of 25 if needed.

Host: Can you tell us how the Agricultural Youth Worker Guidelines can be used?

Marsha Salzewedel, PhD: When you look at the Agricultural Youth Worker Guidelines, the first thing that you'll notice at the very top is a box that has a title on it that says, can youth do this job safely? And then underneath that, there's a bulleted list of abilities that you need to assess that youth for.

And so for each one of those bullets that's there, you need to read that bullet point and then determine if the youth that you're thinking of having do that job can do it. So for instance, the first bullet point on the operating a tractor guideline says, reach and operate controls while wearing a seat belt.

So if the youth cannot sit down in that tractor and while he's got the seat belt on, if he's not able to reach all the controls with his hands and his feet, then he shouldn't be doing the job because he can't do the job safely.

Host: Got it. And what is covered within the guidelines, like supervision, PPE?

Marsha Salzewedel, PhD: Absolutely. So, we do have that whole section on how to assess if a youth can do the job safely. So, the number of bullet points that are in that particular box actually depends upon the job itself. Some jobs are more complicated and require more abilities than other ones do. Additional items in there are adult responsibilities.

So, once you've determined that the youth can do the job safely and that they have those abilities, then you take a look at what the adult needs to do in order to be able to protect that youth and make sure that youth is safe while doing that job. And then on top of that, there's information there about supervision and how much supervision is needed.

And also some information on the most common hazards and protective strategies for that job. And so again, these are not all of the hazards or all of the protective strategies, but they're the ones that are the most common for every job.

Host: And you mentioned the actual jobs. What types of tasks are available?

Marsha Salzewedel, PhD: There's actually guidelines that are laid out for 48 different tasks on the farm. And these guidelines range from everything from more manual labor, like lifting and climbing, to things that are more, as I mentioned before, more complicated, such as operating tractors, operating lawn mowers. operating a drone, and just a wide variety of different things.

And so they're available for all these different tasks that range from everything from equipment to working with animals to actual gardening type tasks like harvesting and planting and those types of things.

Host: Marsha, earlier we talked about age range and some of the jobs you have to be at least 16, but some you can be a lot younger. What are some of those jobs? And what's the age range for that?

Marsha Salzewedel, PhD: So, some of the jobs that younger kids can do are things like hand weeding and hand harvesting, and those jobs can actually start as young as age seven. And again, the important part about those jobs is to assess the youth's ability to be able to do it. So you can look at two seven year olds, and one of them could actually be six inches taller and a lot bigger.

So physically they might be up to the job. Other youth may have the physical abilities to do the job, but cognitively or mentally they may not have the abilities to do the job. So while there are ages listed on these guidelines, the important part isn't necessarily the age. Those ages are listed as a starting point, but really the important part is, is to assess that youth's ability to do that job.

Host: And how do you assess it? Do you go down the list of kind of checkpoints?

Marsha Salzewedel, PhD: Absolutely. So, that top box on those guidelines actually has information on there about what the youth needs to be able to do in order to do that job safely. And so you go through all of the points that are in that first box and that youth should be able to do all of those things listed in that box in order to be able to do that job safely.

Host: And are we talking about summer jobs or kids at their family farm? What jobs are these mostly?

Marsha Salzewedel, PhD: Actually, we're talking about all of them. So whether a youth is working on their family farm, whether they're working a summer job, or whether this is a job that they work all year round, some kids go and they'll help with chores before school, or they'll do things after school, and they'll work for neighbors and stuff.

So, it doesn't really make a difference whether the child is on the family farm, or if they're hired to work somewhere else, or even if they're helping somebody out. They should always be assessed to make sure that they can do that job safely, regardless of what type of employment they have.

Host: Well, thank goodness, the Agricultural Youth Worker Guidelines are in place because, I can't imagine what would happen if they weren't. In closing, Marsha, is there anything else you'd like to add that you think people should know?

Marsha Salzewedel, PhD: One other thing that I wanted to add, simply because we're talking about the women influencers here, is that a lot of the studies tell us that the women on the farms, the mom on the farms, especially on family farms, that the women are the ones that actually implement the most safety strategies.

And so these guidelines are a great tool for the women to be able to use, and actually for any adult to be able to use, and they can actually use them with the youth if they want to, and be able to discuss all these different points that are on there about doing the job safely and all the different responsibilities that are there.

And sometimes it works really well because it helps the child or the youth to be able to understand why they can or can't do the job, and it also helps them to understand what some of those hazards are around that job. And so, it's a great tool for both the adult and the youth to be able to use and ideally actually be used with the two of them together.

Host: So for people who want to find out about these guidelines or actually get them so they can implement them and know what's on the list, how would they go about that? How would they find them?

Marsha Salzewedel, PhD: Well, they're very easily accessible off of the Cultivate Safety website, and that address is CultivateSafety.org/aywg. And on that particular website, there is a great filter and search option there so it makes it very easy to search out and find the guidelines that you're looking for. If you don't have internet access for some reason, we are very open to having you call us at 800-662-6900 and just asking and we're happy to mail out any of the guidelines that you might need.

Host: This has been so informative, Marsha. Thank you so much for joining us today and sharing this information.

Marsha Salzewedel, PhD: It's been a pleasure. Thank you for having me.

Host: Again, that's Marsha Salzewedel to find out more, please visit carle.org, that's C-A-R-L-E. org. If you found this podcast helpful, please share it on your social channels and check out our entire podcast library for topics of interest to you. I'm Maggie McKay, thanks for listening to Let's Talk with Carle Health. Count on Carle to be your partner in health and wellness, and join us next time on Let's Talk with Carle Health.