The Rural Voice, 1987-05, Page 87BRUCE COUNTY Federation of Agriculture NEWSLETTER
SAFETY UPDATE
"Preparing for Pesticides, the Kill-
er Chemicals" was the topic of a report
by Michael G. Smith and Ray
Andrews presented at the 14th Annual
Fann Safety Conference in March.
Representatives from the Bruce
County Federation of Agriculture and
the Bruce County Farm Safety Associa-
tion were honoured to hear an excellent
presentation by Ken Kelly.
A few notes from the Smith report
may help you realize that more
knowledge of the hazards and safety
precautions when handling pesticides
is obtained each day.
Of the pesticides, those designed to
kill insects or animals are usually the
most toxic to humans, but all pesti-
cides should be considered dangerous
and potentially toxic.
One way to determine the toxicity
of a chemical is to refer to a material
safety data sheet. While these sheets
may differ slightly from company to
company, they will usually classify
the toxicity of a chemical in the form
of an LD50 or TLV (Threshold Limit
Value). Pesticide toxicity levels are al-
so measured and expressed as acute or-
al, inhalation, and dermal toxicity.
Agents such as Paraquat and Di-
quat bind to and injure epithelial tissue
of the skin, nails, eyes, nose, mouth,
respiratory, and gastro-intestinal tracts.
The reaction to low-level exposure
will occur in 24 to 72 hours and will
include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and
muscle twitching. Approximately 72
to 96 hours later, the patient begins to
have breathing trouble and kidney
functions start to deteriorate.
From 72 hours to 14 days after
ingestion, indications of diffuse toxic
pneumonitis often appear, with the
patient showing symptoms of severe
coughing, dyspnea, pulmonary edema,
and tachypnea. Lung disease usually
progresses until it causes death within
one to three weeks.
Victims of high-level oral expo-
sure will almost immediately experi-
ence nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, kid-
ney failure, breathing trouble, seizures,
and cardiac problems. Death can occur
from multiple causes, mainly the de-
struction of lung tissue.
86 THE RURAL VOICE
446 10th St., Hanover, Ontario N4N 1P9 519-364-3050
Evaluate your situation. There are
self-contained breathing helmets avail-
able. Some practical units were on
display at the conference.
We are all busy people, but please
let us not be in too much of a rush.
An accident causes not only personal
harm, but will certainly put a burden
on others, so let's put our prevention
knowledge into practice.°
C. L. Fielder
for the BCFSA and the BCFA
OTTAWA LOBBY
On March 26 and 27 a delegation
of six BCFA members and one rep-
resentative of Bruce County Council
conducted a lobby effort in Ottawa.
Our trip was organized for two pri-
mary reasons, the first being the excel-
lent response from a similar effort last
year and the second to express concern
for the viability of agriculture not only
in our county but across the country.
Our first appointment, with the
Farm Credit Corporation, allowed us
to discuss our proposal for a farm bank
run by the FCC. This would allow a
farmer to obtain all his credit in one
place and at reasonable interest rates.
The gentlemen with whom we met did
not have an answer to the problem of
high mortgage values and low land
prices. They were waiting for Mr.
Wise to give them some direction.
They were very enthusiastic about
their commodity -based loan program.
We went over it in more detail with a
local FCC representative in Walkerton
upon returning home, but in most
cases it still amounts to a long-term
lease. Unless commodity prices fall
over the term of the mortgage, the
mortgage -holder pays off very little, if
any, principal. There would be a good
chance that you would owe more!
While such loans may work in selected
cases, we still have strong reservations
about this program.
The FCC judges that, on average,
land prices have returned to 1972 val-
ues — just in case you weren't sure of
your land value. Staff indicated that
they have a very heavy workload ahead
of them if the moratorium is lifted.
Their figures show that about 13,000
of their clients are insolvent and anoth-
er 40,000 are in financial difficulty.
They indicated that the FCC is taking
a more open-minded approach to these
difficulties and that the situation is a
new experience for everyone.
Our next major visit was with
Agriculture Canada. Regarding the re-
view board, we expressed our concern
over the lack of consistency in results
from one panel to the next and also
over the fact that many are going
through the process with no resolution
when it's over.
Several suggestions were made,
from requesting that the promised re-
view of the board take place imme-
diately to ensure it is working in fair-
ness to all farmers to asking for the
appointment of an ombudsman to
review cases where farmers don't feel
they received a fair hearing.
In the case of stabilization, we
highlighted the inadequacy of the
program in that as prices fall, so does
the payment, so that one can no longer
cover one's cost of production. We
expressed the need for a long-term
agricultural policy.
It is deemed essential that the
Special Canadian Grains Program be
continued and increased for another
year, even more so in light of the
announcement by the Canadian Wheat
Board of a reduction in initial pay-
ments on Western grain this year.
In a meeting with the Department
of Finance, our concern about the im-
plementation of a business transfer tax
was noted, along with the need to be
able to keep more money on the farm.
Beginning farmers, if they are working
off the farm, should be able to claim
more than a $5,000 farm loss and
shouldn't be hassled by the part-time
farmer clause of the Income Tax Act.
These are some of the highlights
of our trip. Our trip was almost cut
short when one member of our delega-
tion mentioned a lack of productivity
in the labour sector in an NDP office.
But the topic was quickly diverted back
to agriculture and we found they were
totally supportive of all our positions.
Our delegation would like to thank
Murray Cardiff for arranging a dinner
for us with several urban and rural -
urban MPs from across Canada.
All in all, the two days were full
and very informative.°
Grant Collins