Analysis of checklists for agricultural safety management

Introduction The current health and safety management system under the Occupational Health and Safety Act has avoided agriculture in Korea. It is important to consider the various safety systems used in agricultural health and safety to develop effective regulations. Objective The aims were to classify and review the items from various checklists using safety systems, such as design, training, etc., ultimately aimed at proposing directions for improving the health and safety of farmers. Material and methods Among the retrieved checklists with Google, four were chosen for this study, based on criteria such as the Checklist developed by an international organization, as well as others. Each item on the checklist was categorized using criteria concerning safety systems, developed based on previous studies. Results The total number of analyzed items was 573, which is 36 more than the actual number of checklist items (537). The proportion of items belonging to the training/procedures system was the highest (32.5%); the second-highest was for the mitigation system – 18.2%.; the third-largest proportion of items was maintenance/inspection – with 14.3%. Items related to the design and human factor systems were 8.2% and 5.6%, respectively. The safety system with the lowest proportion was the warning/notification system – 4.2% of the total items. The proportion of items that could not be classified into safety systems was found to be 16.1%. Conclusions A large number of items belonging to the training/procedures system reported as occasionally not effective in prevention of injury were found in the checklists. It appears important to develop checklist items proposing the supplementation of various safety systems, rather than presenting items that are biased towards certain safety systems.