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Health and Safety

Farmers and growers have obligations under the Health and Safety in Employment Act (1992) to esnure that the workplace is both healthy and safe.   The HSE Act is administered by the Occupational Health and Safety Service, part of the Ministry of Labour.   The key requirements are to ensure that hazards are identified, information is provided to employees, that mechanisms to record and report on accidents are in place as well as emergency procedures.   The issues of particular interest to the rural industries include - vehicles and machinary, noise, agrichemical use, prevention of worker injury.   A range of Codes of Practice and Standards have been developed to assist in the implementation of healthy and safe workplaces, as well as training and support materials.

Risk Areas/Issues

Health & Safety - General

Vehicles and Machinery

Workers

Noise

Noise generated on farm can impact on surrounding landowners.   Use of Audible Bird Scarers and Frost Protection Fans are devices which create intermittent and intrusive noise while other farm activities, such as harvesting and irrigation, can generate noise at various times through the day and night.
The greatest effects of noise will be on neighours, and where an activity is located amongst rural residential development, levels generated may not necessarily meet expectations of a ‘quiet ambient rural environment.’
District Councils have responsibility under the Resource Management Act 1991 to manage noise.   District Plans usually contain permitted activity standards which allow for noise to certain levels in a rural area.   Often there are exclusions for rural activities to ensure that the rural businesses can operate.   There may be specific requirements for noisier activities, such as bird scarers and frost fans, which may require resource consents.   There is a general responsibility in the RMA (Sec 16) which requires all land users to avoid unreasonable noise and to adopt the best practicable option to ensure the emissions of noise do not exceed a reasonable level.   So while an activity may be permitted in a District Plan, if it is creating unreasonable noise a Council could take action to reduce the noise levels.