Work Safety Issues in Non-professional Vegetables Gardens

Non-professional vegetables gardens (NPVGs) can be urban, peri-urban or agricultural, and only 15% of these have a surface smaller than 50 m2, with exclusively family production and having only manual equipment. Another 40% includes NPVGs with up to 1000 m2, structured for a vegetable production but also with fruit trees, livestock and wooded areas. NPVGs up to 1 ha are 15%, and 30% are over 1 ha with wooded areas. About 20 million people in Italy are involved in this agricultural reality, implementing an economic and social value, and the sector of gardening machinery and equipment has seen considerable increases in these last years. Indeed, the management of NPVGs also includes a wide type of machinery and processes for the preservation of products; the data show that 54% of NPVGs have mechanical equipment, with work tools such as chainsaws, blowers/aspirators, motor hoes, robotic lawn mowers, etc. The problem of user safety in operating these machines emerges prominently, accentuated by the fact that this is an unregistered reality and there is no obligation for users’ training or for the provision of personal protection equipment (PPE) other than the ones supplied when machines are purchased. The training of operators of NPVGs is less thorough and, generally, it does not encompass the conditions of use of equipment, especially for those machines that can be dangerous if used improperly, such as: chainsaws, rotary hoes, and log splitters.