Preventing livestock manure suffocation accidents...distributing educational videos and strengthening farm owners' responsibilities

(Seoul=Yonhap News) Reporter Han Ju-hong = The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, the Ministry of Environment and Energy, and the Livestock Environmental Management Institute announced on the 1st that they will distribute multilingual safety education videos for both domestic and foreign nationals to prevent livestock manure suffocation accidents in rural areas. From 2014 to 2023, 10 years, 46 suffocation accidents occurred at wastewater treatment facilities, septic tanks, and livestock manure treatment facilities, resulting in 39 deaths. In January, a 60-year-old man working on a farm in Jeju Island lost consciousness and died after falling into a manure treatment facility due to suffocation from gases emitted from the manure. In particular, it has been pointed out that the risk of suffocation accidents is higher at work sites with a high proportion of foreign workers because safety guidelines are not sufficiently conveyed due to language barriers. In response, the government has decided to produce the safety education videos in 8 foreign languages including Nepali, Cambodian, Thai, Vietnamese, Burmese, Filipino, Indonesian, and Uzbek, in addition to Korean. The videos will be posted on social media, YouTube, and the education system operated by the Livestock Environmental Management Institute starting from the 2nd. In addition to this, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs plans to distribute safety accident prevention guidelines together with the Ministry of Employment and Labor, expand regional tour education to 16 times this year, prioritize support for safety facilities, annually survey the safety status of livestock sites, and strengthen the responsibility of farm owners for safety accidents. juhong@yna.co.kr