Turf QLD Industry Alert |THE IMPORTANCE OF “SUN SAFETY” IN TURF PRODUCTION TRAINING

THE IMPORTANCE OF “SUN SAFETY” IN TURF PRODUCTION TRAINING

The Australian sun is always strong, however through the winter months we tend to slacken our protection against its rays.

Coming into spring and summer the Australian sun sharpens its rays and now is a good time to refresh the knowledge of your turf production team about the importance of sun safety.

As we know and take for granted Australia has one of the higher skin cancer rates in the world with our love of the great outdoors. Education and training of those working in the outdoors is extremely important and we have been able to reduce these rates by utilising the following:

• Slip on protective clothing
• Slop on sunscreen
• Slap on a hat
• Seek shade where possible
• Slide on sunglasses

When you look at it these are simple things to do and everyone knows what to do the question is do they do it? With employer support this can be strongly promoted to your employees at lunch meetings or toolbox meetings or even when talking individually to your employees. Continuously be promoting Sun Safety the results of being sunburnt when you are young shows up when you are older.

The turf production industry has a lot of employees who may not have grown up under the Aussie sun and the harsh Australian sun is not something foreign workers are familiar with without the appropriate training. This can affect the productivity of your farm.