SPECIAL FARM AND RURAL WORKING PROBLEMS
Although it is commonly
thought that working on a farm or in a rural area is healthier than urban work,
statistics indicate that this is not so, that illness and disability have much
the same incidence in both places. In some rural areas, moreover, where doctors
are few and hospitals poorly equipped, residents may have more health problems
than do city dwellers.
If you live and work in a rural area, you should know
the facts about certain diseases that may occur in some rural areas:
brucellosis (undulant fever), tularemia, and typhoid fever, tuberculosis of
bones and joints, dysentery, malaria, hookworm.
Rural living provides no particular protection against
tuberculosis and, indeed, farmers need to take every precaution listed and some
extra ones as well. For example, milk in cities almost invariably is
pasteurized, a precaution that helps prevent tuberculosis of the glands and
bones, and other diseases such as undulant fever and septic sore throat.
Unless
a farmer goes to the trouble of pasteurizing the milk from his own cow, he and
his family are in danger from these diseases. Many wise farmers set an example
all might well follow: they either do their own pasteurizing or buy back some
of the milk they sell to dairy plants after it has been pasteurized. Home
pasteurization is described elsewhere in this blogs.
Farm Accidents The accident toll among rural Americans is
high. While there is less danger than in the city from traffic, this is
counterbalanced by the frequency of accidents during operation of farm
machinery and by other hazards. Because
the accident rate is high and medical care may not be very lose by, every
farmer should have a good working knowledge of first aid, and all farm vehicles
should carry first-aid kits, including instruction booklets, even small wounds
need immediate treatment because of the danger of infection.
Any animal bites
should be promptly washed with soap and water and treated, and they should also
be reported to a physician and the animal should be checked for rabies. Tetanus
(lockjaw) organisms thrive in the intestines of horses and other grass-eating
animals and are therefore found around barns and in oil fertilized by manure.
This disease, which can develop as the result of any deep wound such as one
produced by stepping on a nail, is a constant threat to people in rural areas.
It can be prevented by inoculations, and everyone, from childhood on, should be
protected against tetanus by much inoculations. No deep wound, however trivial
it may seem, should be neglected; an immediate injection of protective serum
may make the difference between life and death. Be sure to read further on
tetanus elsewhere in this book.
