Gauteng Smallholder Gauteng Smallholder September 2017 | Page 41

ON THE PLOT
Is your plot a dangerous place?
L
et's face it: a smallhold-
ing can be a dangerous
place. There are snakes
in the woodpile, scorpions
under the rocks, angry bees
in the trees and bad people
lurking in the bushes.
And then there's a workshop
full of dangerous machinery,
and cans full of nasty
flammable liquids.
And very often with little in
the way of safety gear or
disaster management
equipment to protect either
oneself or one's workers.
How often have you driven
down your street to see
workers out on the sidewalk
using brushcutters without
eye or ear protection? Or let
your kid use the lawnmower
barefoot? Or wielded a
chainsaw yourself without
either proper safety wear or
any formal training?
Some simple pointers to a safer plot
and a longer life, with all your limbs
and digits intact.
And in your workshop, how
many canisters or jerry cans
of flammable liquid are
there? And how clearly are
they labelled?
Here are some pointers to
keeping your hearing and
eyesight, and digits attached
to your body, and some ideas
to keeping all your machinery
running without the whole
place burning down.
K Noise ~ Any small
motorised machine, be it a
brushcutter, chainsaw or
mower, emits a damaging
amount of noise. The
problem with exposure to
loud noise is that it is only
picked up later in life. So, as
a young man you quite
happily subject your unpro-
tected ears to loud noise (not
only, it must be said, from
machinery, but also at rock
concerts, on the shooting
range, in the movies and
from your car radio). When
you turn 55 or 60 you will
notice you no longer hear so
well, and may have difficulty
making out what callers say
on your cellphone, for
example. That's because the
loud noise of your youth has
damaged your auditory
nerves.
Prevent damage to your
hearing by inserting industrial
ear-plugs into your ears or,
better still, by wearing ear-
muffs. Although the latter are
39
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bulky they are designed to
allow you to hear sounds
such as people talking to
you, but merely mute the
sound to a reasonable, non-
damaging level.
They come in stand-alone
versions but can also be
bought as an integral part of
a safety hat, incorporating a
mesh visor for full-face
protection.
K Brushcutters & lawn-
mowers ~ Any machine that
has a blade spinning at high
speed has the potential to do
serious damage. At the very
least the blades can kick up
small stones and splinters of
wood which can fly off with
the speed of a bullet, causing
concomitant damage to
unprotected legs, hands or
eyes. Worse, the blade itself
can become detached and fly
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