Wearable technology makes the workplace safer

Technology has found its way into every nook and cranny of agriculture, including onto farmers and farm workers. Wearable devices can help keep people safe, but only if folks listen to the reminders and heed the warnings.

Dr. Aaron Yoder is an associate professor in the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s College of Public Health and also works with AgrAbility. The Purdue-University-affiliated organization helps farmers use ergonomics and assistive technology to make their jobs easier and safer.

Employer-led efforts

Yoder works with feed yard workers across Nebraska. Some of the larger feed yards have their own feed mills, and Yoder says the heat and noise levels can get very high inside them.

Some feedlots Yoder works with use wearable technology from MakuSafe (makusafe.com). Employee-worn sensors send data to employers, alerting them to things such as individual heat index, noise exposure, and poor air quality, as well as falls and repetitive motions that injure. This allows the employer to remove employees before a situation becomes dangerous.

“The company provides the service with a base station and the devices,” Yoder describes. “When workers check in [during] the morning, they put these devices on, and when they come back at the end of the day, they turn them back in.” It’s similar to how workers use personal protective equipment such as safety glasses and hearing protection.

While some workers may resist their employers monitoring things such as their heart rate and movement, Yoder says, “If you’re the only one receiving the data and you are the one that goes down, nobody else is going to know to come and help you.”

Safeguarding data

Employers who wish to use this type of system need to have a conversation with employees and be willing to discuss employee privacy.

“A lot of the adoption of this technology is figuring out who needs the data, what it could be used for, and making everybody comfortable with what it is,” Yoder says. 

Not all systems constantly stream and store individuals’ data. “Some of the devices only send out alerts when they sense something bad is happening based on the data they’re collecting,” Yoder says. “They’re not constantly watching everyone, like Big Brother.”

Having too much data to sort through can overwhelm employers, so they don’t want to collect more than they need, Yoder says. The goal is to make the technology useful for workers and employers.

“Employers will need to figure out how to prioritize, what data they need to be paying attention to now, and what data they can just store and maybe review later to look for trends,” Yoder says.

Tech for small farms

Yoder says smaller employers or families farming together can still use wearable technology to improve safety.

“Maybe the wife is saying, ‘Hey, I’d like you to wear this watch so I know where you are.’ Or the family will use Life360 or another location app,” he says. 

He says personal devices, such as smartwatches and fitness trackers, can help keep farmers safe. For example, a few years ago, an elderly farmer in Nebraska fell off a grain bin. His Apple watch detected the fall, called emergency services, and relayed his location, likely saving his life. 

A fitness tracker or smartwatch can also alert the wearer if their heart rate or blood pressure is too high. “We know in a lot of physical jobs, people succumb to heart-related illnesses,” Yoder says, “either from the stress or from overworking. By alerting people to that, they can take a break.”

Smartphones, which Yoder considers wearable technology, can alert users to dangerous weather, including extreme hot or cold, and high humidity. Apps can do everything from monitor blood sugar (with a wearable sensor), to track sleep patterns, to detect car crashes.

Devices such as the DROP from Pennsylvania-based Kestrel Instruments (kestrelinstruments.com) clip to clothing and measure temperature, humidity, and heat index. On a farm, those readings can vary greatly, depending on the location, job, and sun and wind exposure. Yoder says relying on a forecast from the nearest airport isn’t enough when it comes to worker safety, and individual readings can save lives.

Still, low-tech is best sometimes. “Some farmers still use CB radios, and they’re especially good in those areas without cell phone reception,” Yoder says. “It’s good for some of the newer and younger people to know that if you’re working in an area like that, consider CB radios.”

Making changes

While this technology is intended to take readings, gather data, and in some cases recommend action, it’s still up to the people to act.

Yoder says, “Behavior change is hard, and we know safety and health [are] a lot about our behaviors.” 

Accountability can help. Whether it’s a safety manager at a feed yard, a coworker, or a spouse, talking about the data and what was done as a result can really make a difference, Yoder says.

 Since farmers rely on data for so much, Yoder says, he believes they will accept using additional data to keep themselves up to the task. “Farmers like data,” he says. “They use weather data, they use crop data, they use all kinds of seed data. Data is right up their alley.”